


The Grim [s.b.]

by avadadracomalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Marauders, Marauders era, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:41:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 49,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29339976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avadadracomalfoy/pseuds/avadadracomalfoy
Summary: A girl chosen for a task unknown. A boy cursed by his family roots. Love can come in the most unlikely of times. . .Christine Monroe just started her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she is joined by the infamous Marauders. She is forced to become friends with them and finds herself closely connected with the group of boys really quickly and with the ongoing war, it doesn't help much that Christine is muggle-born with a struggle in most of her subjects.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. The Train

**Author's Note:**

> This book is on hold atm but will be up and running again eventually.
> 
> J.K. Rowling owns the right to every character except Christine Monroe and Dana O'Brien. I do not agree with any of J.K. Rowling's statements.
> 
> There is smut later on in the book and there is also fluff and other relationships other than Sirius and the OC.
> 
> The first like ten chapters have a lot of spelling mistakes and I'm too lazy to fix them so enjoy.

_Start of term, 1976, Hogwarts Express_

Christine Monroe dragged her trunk behind her as she approached the Hogwarts Express. Her chocolate brown hair was in a messy bun on top of her head and she was sure her dark blue eyes made her look like a maniac. It was getting late and she knew she would never be able to get the trunk on the train. Her parents had left her behind the barrier as they were too scared to cross through it. Everything would've been fine if her older brother had come in to help her with her trunk. She wished at that moment for a trolley, it would make life much easier for her.

She had finally got her trunk into a compartment that was empty. It always seemed lonesome for her as she bordered the Hogwarts Express with her family already having left Kings Cross. She had to suffer as all the children around her got to say goodbye to their families by waving out of the window. She just wished that her parents weren't as scared as the magical world as they seemed to have been.

She remembered the day that Professor McGonagall went to her house to explain what Hogwarts was and her parents were too reluctant to let her go till the Headmaster himself had to come to her house to insist her parents on letting her go to Hogwarts. They finally said yes and she was given some wizarding money to make her purchases and the next week she had left to join the magical world on the Hogwarts Express and start her magical training as a witch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The compartment door slammed open as the train started to move towards Hogwarts and Christine smiled as her two best friends in the world had entered. First there was Lily Evans, a muggleborn as well who was incredibly talented in magic. She had blazing red hair that went down past her shoulders, a shorter stature, and brilliant bright green eyes that always radiated a happy energy. Her next best friend was Dana O'Brien who was a pureblood from a rich family that was called blood traitors. She had simple, elegant blonde hair that flowed past her shoulders and down to the middle of her back, she had magnificent electric blue eyes, and a smile that could pierce anyone's soul.

They sat down with Christine, putting their trunks onto the rack above with Dana's owl, Lenny squawking very loudly.

"You need to make your owl shut up," Lily said, already pulling out a textbook and inspecting it. Her prefect badge was gleaming off her chest as she commanded orders all over the school.

"I'm trying, but nothing will work," Dana complained. She finally sat down and sighed as Lenny kept making loud noises.

"It's kind of nice to hear the squawking of an owl," Christine said. She had missed the sounds of the magical world all summer as her family made Lily and Dana send her letters through muggle mail, which didn't work out too well for Dana.

"Out of all the sounds of the magical world you choose an owl?" Dana laughed as she put her hands over her ears to keep the sound from bursting her ear drums.

"If it bothers you that much just silence him," Lily remarked.

"I forgot the spell," Dana said with an awkward smile. It was clear that Dana did no homework over the summer holidays.

Lily looked at Dana like she was an idiot and pointed her wand to Lenny. "Silencio." She flicked her wand and as soon as Lenny tried to squawk again he couldn't so he just gave up, slightly closing his eyes.

"So how was your summer, Dana?" Christine asked her. She really wanted to know all the things that Dana did because she hadnt heard from her all summer.

"It was good other then when we invited the Malfoy's over for dinner and they completely bashed our family and now none of the pureblood families like us anymore," Dana replied with a smile.

"So the normal?" Christine asked.

"The normal." She laughed at the fact that that was normal. "How was your summer, Chris?" Dana asked.

"Well I sat around, went on a few dates, did a lot of cleaning and went to summer school," Christine replied. She had to go to summer school because her parents didn't believe that Hogwarts would get her a job after so her parents were determined to let her get her high school diploma.

"Who went on a few dates?" said a boy, entering the compartment with three of his friends. He had jet black hair that was always in a mess on top of his head because he would mess it up profusely till it couldn't stay down, he had brown eyes and was completely cocky. This boys name was James Potter and he was a fairly handsome boy, as there were dozens of girls wanting to go out with him but James was determined to go out on a date with Lily and he had been chasing after her ever since their third year.

To his right there was a tall boy, with a cocky grin on his face and this boy was Sirius Black. Sirius was a complete moron when it came to girls and he didn't know how to properly treat them. He had that dream boy look to him as girls also constantly chased him. He had black hair like his friend James that was longer than James' and was curly. He had grey eyes that were tempting to any girl except Christine. Sirius tended to move from girl to girl around the school and had probably been with half of the girls in the entire school. Sirius had never settled on one for even a week and always ditched them or broke up with them in front of everyone. He was one for a show.

There were two other boys by James whose names were Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Remus Lupin was a taller boy with light brown hair and dark green eyes. He seemed to keep the boys in order and was the other sixth year Gryffindor prefect (other than Lily). He was very skilled in academics. He had a deep scar across his face that first years tended to ask him about, but only very few people actually knew why it was there and Christine wasn't one of those people. The other boy, Peter, was scrawny, blond, and short. He had a face that kind of looked like a rat and just tended to float wherever his friends went, he was sort of left out and forgotten about. At some points Christine felt very bad for Peter.

Lily rolled her eyes as James took a seat next to her and she moved over to sit beside Christine.

"Chris did," Lily said to James. Lily was definitely tempted to say herself to get James off her back, but that would mean she would have to constantly send owls to some unknown boy and James would try to intercept those.

"So Chrisy you went on some dates?" The cocky and moronic Sirius Black said. Sirius grabbed the muggle magazine Christine was reading and laughed at the celebrity gossip.

"Give me that back," Christine responded, snatching the magazine right out of Sirius's hands. "And as a matter of fact I did and none of the boys were interesting," she scoffed.

"Well obviously because they weren't me," Sirius said. He winked at her as Christine grimaced.

"No they weren't interesting because they were exactly like you, Black," Christine said with a scowl on her face. She despised Sirius Black and she knew that she had to put up with him but he was so aggravating all the time to her. Even if some girls could tolerate the constant flirting, Christine sure couldn't.

"Sad blow, Padfoot," James said as Sirius took a seat next to Lily. They had come up with stupid nicknames for each other, they could confuse a lot of people most of the time, but once you had spent a lot of time around them you would be able to be tell the difference in their names. Sirius was Padfoot, James was Prongs, Remus was Moony, and Peter was Wormtail. No one knew where these nicknames originated from, but they seemed to use them a lot which annoyed not only Christine, Lily, and Dana but every single person in the school.

"So, Lily, have you considered going out with me yet?" James asked Lily. He gave her a wink and she just scoffed.

"As if!" She almost yelled. She was so fed up with James and trying to make her go out on a date, it happened on the daily. "You annoying little douchebag! I will never go out with you so please stop asking!"

James and Sirius both looked at each other then Remus said, "That's enough, James, we should go." James rose and walked out of the compartment with a slightly terrified face, clearly Lily had finally scared James out of his mind. "Sorry about that," Remus said while walking out of the compartment with Peter following close behind.

The three girls sat there while Sirius sat beside Lily with a grin on his face.

"I'm sorry, but what do you want, Black?" Christine exclaimed loudly. She was so annoyed at the fact that he hadn't gone with his friends back to his compartment.

"No need to get so frisky, Chrisy, I'm leaving," Sirius said. He stood up quickly and left after the boys.

"He can be so agitating sometimes!" Christine said loud enough for the next compartment over to hear.

"Don't lie to yourself, you love me, Chrisy," Sirius said. He had popped his head back into the compartment and winked to Christine.

She rolled her eyes as Sirius had finally left.

"Did you see that?" Dana asked Lily and Christine.

"What?" Lily and Christine asked together.

Dana had a lovestruck look on her face and looked like she would be drooling if she wouldn't be able to stop herself.

"Sirius," was all she said.

"What about that arrogant asshole?" Christine asked. She didn't want to see a lovestruck Dana because she knew that lovestruck Dana was lovestruck because Sirius Black had been sitting across from her.

"He made eye contact with m-me," she stuttered. It was normal for Dana to completely lose her mind as Sirius would walk into a room. At school she could barely last fifteen minutes at breakfast with James flirting with Lily and the rest of the Marauders standing behind him. She would always freeze up, stare, or leave the room completely. Sirius would always laugh as he knew why she did that.

"It's okay," Lily said, switching to the other side of the compartment and to talk Dana out of a burst of crazy talk about Sirius.

"You still have a crush on Black?" Christine asked in remorse. She knew that Dana had had a crush on Sirius since their second year when he asked for an extra quil in Transfiguration.

Lily made eye contact with Christine after she had said that. The look Lily gave her was either a look of warning or a look of complete unbelief at what she had said.

"Of course I'm still on about it!" Dana said quietly to make sure Sirius didn't hear in the compartment next door. It was unfortunate that the Marauders were sitting right next to them. There was no doubt that they kicked a bunch of first years out so they could hear girl gossip from Lily's compartment next door.

"I just dont understand what you seem in him," Christine said firmly. It was true, she didn't know what she saw. Okay, maybe Sirius was attractive to some girls, maybe the flirting with every girl felt special to every girl he flirted with, maybe he was okay at quidditch, but he was an arrogant asshole who only thought of himself and no one else, constantly refusing girls and constantly dumping girls. Christine knew that every girl in her year, excluding Lily, Dana and herself, had been dumped by Sirius Black, but he had of course gotten back together with because of the lack of older girls.

"He's smart, he's handsome, and an utter dream," Dana said, "Just because you find him annoying, bothersome and cocky, Chris, it doesnt mean that other people dont think hes sweet and handsome and-"

"That's enough!" Lily exclaimed. Clearly she still was bothered by what James had said. "You two constantly fight about Danas crush and its enough! Dana," she turned to Dana, "you can like Sirius, you can think he's all handsome, and he's your crush, you are allowed to think that and you, Chris," she then turned to Chris, "who cares what you think about Sirius, a lot of girls like him and don't care about what you say, and you just keep making Dana mad everytime you bring him up so can we please stop talking about Sirius!" She seemed really mad at this point.

Dana and Christine exchanged a look and Christine turned to Lily and said, "Okay, then, Lily you want to rant about James to us?" Christine smirked, evilly, she knew this would really set Lily off.

"Did somebody mention me?" James asked, opening the compartment door.

Lily threw her backpack at him and yelled, "stay out of my compartment, Potter!"

James quickly gave her a scared look, a wink, then a smirk and left as Lily picked up her backpack and hit him with the backpack in the corridor to get him back in his compartment.

Dana and Christine sat there for a minute and heard that she had to get Remus so they could go to the prefects meeting. Dana and Christine knew she wouldn't be back for a very long time.

"Sorry," Chris muttered. She felt bad for making Dana list all the good things about Sirius, because she had clearly made up half of them.

"It's okay, I shouldn't have gone on about it, you don't like him and you don't want to hear about him," she said, looking into Christines eyes. Her eyes were sorrowful and Christine knew she had hurt her feelings.

Christine made her way to sit beside Dana and put her arm around her and said, "You can talk all you want about Sirius and I may not be into Sirius or find him a little bit tolerable, but he's the guy you like and friends tell each other everything about that said guy and so you can always talk to me about Sirius and I won't snap at you."

"Really?" Dana said in disbelief. Of course Christine didn't want to hear Dana talking about the dimbo with goo goo eyes or Dana clutching her chest, but she would support her friend.

"Of course, but just tone down the goey talk," Christine responded with a laugh.

They both ended up laughing.

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was peaceful as Christine and Dana had bought some sweets from the trolley witch and saved some for Lily.

When Lily had come back the girls talked all about Lilys prefect meeting and the new things Filch was banning. They laughed and enjoyed their way back to Hogwarts and clearly couldn't wait to get back into classes. They all missed the school. Dana missed Sirius, and how she didn't have to be put through the constant pressure of being put in the spotlight of her pureblood family. Lily missed the classes, the endless amount of books in the library, the common room, and of course the teachers. But Christine missed the smell, the castle, the memories, the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, the Forbidden Forest, quidditch matches, and most importantly, magic. She had spent all summer away from any of it and wanted to so badly return to the magical world for she belonged there and nobody could tell her anything different.


	2. The Carriage

Christine and the rest of her friends made their way up to the castle through the horseless carriages. Only a few people could see what was really pulling the carriages and Dana was one of those people. Apparently, Dana had seen her grandmother brutally murdered by a Death Eater. It was a sob story that Dana never wanted to talk about.

They sat in the carriage as they were being pulled up towards the castle when someone had jumped into their carriage, well more than one person, two people.

"So what are we talking about, ladies?" Sirius asked as he took a seat between Christine and Dana, and put his arm around Dana and Christine's shoulders.

"Nothing that concerns you, Black," Christine said, renouncing his arm from around her shoulder.

"A little feisty are we, Chrisy?" Sirius said with a cocky grin. Christine found it absolutely insane that Sirius tried to flirt with her and the rest of the school.

"Will you please remove your arm?" Chris said with a distinct voice, showing that she was the alpha. Sirius looked at her and slowly removed his arm.

"So, Lily, what classes are you taking?" James asked Lily. Lily had already gotten so uncomfortable that she was by the closest window on the carriage.

"That's unimportant, Potter," Lily scoffed.

"Well of course it's important, I need to know what classes my Lily flower will be taking so I can switch timetables to fit yours," James said with a smirk. He looked at her with eyes that were so pure and full of awe. Lily really hated it, but every girl would give anything to be in her place.

"And that is exactly why I am not going to tell you," Lily said, glaring at him. Even if James was utterly and fully in love with Lily and she was entirely fed up with James, but it was clear that there was some chemistry.

"Come on, Evans, give Prongs at least one date," Sirius said. He still had his arm around Dana who looked like she was having trouble breathing.

"Sirius, why do you keep trying? I will never go on a date with James, I just don't like him like that and, James, will you please stop following me!" Lily looked like she was on the verge of tears which didn't happen often, only when something was really bothering her and James was that something.

Christine went over to Lily and sat between her and James. Sirius shifted and took his arm off of Dana's shoulder and she still had a shocked face.

"You okay, O'Brien?" James asked. He looked utterly concerned for Dana's well being. James hadn't even realised that Lily was close to tears.

"Y-y-yes," Dana stuttered.

"Thanks, Potter," Chris said. Lily was now fine and looking out the window in discontent.

"What did I do?" James said.

Sirius laughed and Christine shot a glare at him. "She really just wanted some alone time with her friends-"

"Bu-"

"I'm not done."

"Damn, Chrisy," Sirius said. Christine shot another glare at him and he closed his mouth.

"Do you even realise how much you bother her? She doesn't like you! Give it up, Potter! She's never going to like you so please, just please shut up and leave us alone."

They sat quiet for a few minutes and no one seemed to have taken notice of Dana who was breathing heavily because Sirius was sitting only a seat away from her. It was an uncontrollable crush and all her friends hated it.

Lily was fine but Christine didn't move back to her seat. The room felt awkward for not only just Christine but everyone. No one was talking, no one was flirting, but people were making faces at each other. James and Sirius had seemed to be making facial expressions indicating how much James wanted to be the one next to Lily and how Sirius wanted to be a flirt but was too scared of Chrisy. James was too scared to tell him through his eyes that it was fine.

"So, Dana," Sirius said. Dana had been looking at her hands until she heard Sirius's voice and looked straight at him with what looked very much like a thirteen year old girl talking to her crush, which was almost true because she was talking to her crush, but she was sixteen.

"Y-yes?" Dana stuttered. Sirius had that tempting smirk on his face that every girl seemed so attracted to.

"How was your summer?" Sirius said, putting on his Sirius charm.

"Well my family was bashed by pure blood families," Dana said. She always went for the "Blood Traitor" look because she knew Sirius would understand because he was a blood traitor to his family.

"Oh," was all he said. Everyone knew that Sirius would refuse to talk about this because it was in his past to be called a blood traitor.

"How was your summer?" she asked hopefully.

He gave her a smirk and a wink and then said, "Well I stayed at James' and we had the most amazing time."

Christine couldn't help but smile at the way Sirius talked animatedly to Dana. Dana of course was dying because Sirius was talking to her, but Sirius looked genuinely happy, he seemed to be in his happy place. Christine knew nothing about Sirius, but just by the way he acted she knew things happened to him that were deeper then Christine ever knew.

~**~

By the time that they had reached the castle Dana was acting a little more chilled around Sirius and Christine wanted to know if it was because Sirius actually talked to her and asked her questions. Lily, James, and Christine sat there laughing away at Dana's nervous remarks that she even knew she shouldn't have said at the time, but she did. Christine couldn't help but see Dana laughing and smiling while looking at Sirius in a way only a few people looked at people. It was like the way James looked at Lily and Christine couldn't help but feel utterly alone in this world, she knew she wouldn't have someone to hold her, to kiss her goodnight, to honestly just hold her hand or talk to her. She knew one day Lily would find someone (hopefully James) and Dana would too (hopefully Sirius) and she knew that all in all she wouldn't have anyone, be she would be happy for her best friends.

The carriage ride was so much more enjoyable with people laughing. James and Lily had the smallest chat and James was sure not to spill of his feelings out to her, and Sirius would talk to Dana and look at Christine from the corner of his eye knowing that she had no one to talk to and he seemed a little disappointed because he thought her to be the nicest person he knew.

At the castle they all made their way up to the castle with Peter and Remus coming behind them having their own conversations. Dana seemed to be enjoying the Marauders company, but Lily and Christine were still a little weary of it.

"So who was in your carriage, Moony?" Sirius asked. He had gotten quite bored with talking to Dana and watched as she would follow where he was looking but he would be sure enough not to get too cocky about it.

"You dont want to know," Remus simply said.

Christine couldn't help but overhear their conversation, but so did James as he stopped and everyone followed as he stopped, hands in his pockets, only taking one out to tassel his hair a little bit to make it messy.

"Oh please do share, Moony. Was it Snivellus? Or even better than one third year who has been dying to go out with you since her first year?" Sirius giggled. Sirius didn't seem like the type to giggle, but his friends brought out a different side of him.

"Worse," Remus said sorrowfully. He didn't seem open to share.

"It was Regulus," Peter spoke. It seemed as though the rat faced boy had disappeared and suddenly appeared, he was like a rat.

Sirius cringed as he thought about the past with his brother, he thought about all the things Regulus did to him and smoothened his expression.

"Was he really?" he asked in a more dead tone.

Christine didn't know what to think of Sirius's smirk gone or the tone of his voice. He wasn't chipper anymore, he was sad.

"Yeah," Remus said, "he kept nagging us about, well, us." Remus was careful about what he said, he knew that Regulus, Sirius's brother was a sensitive topic for him.

"What did he say?" he said between his teeth. A wave of anger flushed over Sirius as he thought about Regulus insulting his friends, his family.

"Just you know stuff about James liking Lily and how you're a blood traitor and how you were never wanted, and of course about how much he didn't like James." Remus knew that being careful was the best bet, but he didn't want to keep information about his best friends away from Sirius, he just couldn't.

"D-Did he call Lily anything?" James said defensively.

"No, Regulus would never do that," Sirius said quickly, "he's a terrible person and I hate his guts, but never would Regulus use a slur like that."

Someone placed their hand on Sirius's arm and he quickly flinched away, but relaxed when he saw that it wasn't Dana, but Christine who had done it. Sirius couldn't help but feel a sense of tranquility with her hand upon his arm.

"Do you want us to leave?" Christine asked. She wanted to leave them alone, she wanted them to deal with this themselves, but she couldn't just let Sirius lash out, no one could, it would be a mess.

"N-no," Sirius said. He watched her carefully inspecting the worry upon her face. He didn't want her to worry and he knew that he would lash out if she wasn't around so he needed to not lash out, he wanted her to stay with him.

"Then let's sit down," Christine insisted. She pulled Sirius to sit beside her on a bench nearby and Remus sat on the other side of him, not comforting him, but just sitting there.

Christine patted his shoulder as he was slowly starting to calm down at her touch, he didn't know why Chris could do this to him, but she could.

"Tell me what happened," Sirius said, taking a deep breath in and out as to conceal the need for a good yell.

"Well after you and James hopped into the girls' carriage, Peter and I went into the next carriage, the last carriage left and of course Regulus was in there with Davenport, Rosier, and Vanity. We sat down and Regulus would give us dark glances then whisper someone in Nadia's ear. She would either stare back or look confused. Regulus started talking about you and it just went downhill from there. We tried to leave, but of course we had no other way to make our way up to the castle so we just squirmed awkwardly. He said a lot of things, and mostly against you, but that's it really."

Sirius stood up, letting Christine's hand fall and walked towards the castle. Everybody looked at each other in confusion and followed reluctantly as Sirius strutted his way to the door.

~**~

They entered the Great Hall very much late. Lily complained as she dragged Dana and Christine to the front of the Gryffindor table where they took seats there. Dana said bye to Sirius and he gave his dashing smirk back to her. Dana felt special for being able to talk to Sirius, for him to laugh with her, it only boosted her self confidence.

Dumbledore nodded as the sorting hat was put away by a stern looking Professor McGonagall, their Transfiguration teacher.

Dumbledore was an old man with half moon spectacles and a long beard that reached to the middle of his stomach. He was the wisest wizard alive and had already been through one wizarding war.

"Welcome new students to your first year at Hogwarts," he said wisely. "I will not keep you waiting for your food so as I always say, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Enjoy the feast!"

Dumbledore waved his hands as piles and piles of foods appeared on the table in front of them. People started putting food on their plate, but Christine just looked up towards the ceiling at the stars. She always enjoyed the enchanted ceiling, but at this moment she knew she was home, she knew it in her veins, she knew she never wanted to return to her muggle life, she just wanted to sit there and stare at the ceiling forever.

~**~

They had reached the common room and the girls went straight to their dormitories to straighten out their things and get ready for a good night's sleep.

The girls entered their bathroom ready to wipe their makeup off and were already in their pajamas. They had had a wonderful dinner and were now chatting away.

"So, Lils, you seemed to tolerate James a little more today," Christine said with a wink. She had been using a muggle facial wipe to clean her face.

"And? It's one day, Chris," Lily said simply.

"Yes, but one could turn into many which could turn into love which could turn into snogging in a broom closet," Chris said with a giggle.

"Like I'll _ever_ snog James Potter in a broom closet." Lily laughed.

"I can see it though," Dana cutted in. "Oh can I use some of those?"

"Of course," Christine said, handing Dana some wipes, "I can see it too."

"And does this get dirty?" Lily asked. She had crossed her arms and was now glaring at both Dana and Christine.

"Not this time, but the next," Chris said. She had started to put a face mask on that she had once again bought from a muggle store before leaving.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine, tell me, but you have to let me do a face mask, Chris." It was a little too late for Chris to decide before Lily had reached out for the face mask and started to put it on her face.

"Well it starts out on a warm summer's evening near end of term."

"Summer?"

"So you get more sweaty," Dana chimed in.

"Exactly." Christine elbowed Dana and started to giggle. "So you run into James after-"

"Potions!" Dana said.

"Potions and you just can't help but look at his teasing face as he has one arm placed against the wall and you're entranced by his eyes," Christine teased.

"First of all ew. Sec-" Lily said.

"Don't interrupt!

"Anyways you just can't help but look at his juicy lips and you just want a bite," Christine said. In all this she was having a blast, making fun of her friend.

"You grabbed his collar," Dana said quickly, "and spun him around and slammed him against the wall."

Lily couldn't help but look at her friends and laugh at them making up scenarios where she would actually kiss James Potter.

"And then your lips crash together and it's like a full on brawl," Chris said. "You push him into a broom closet and slam the door behind you."

Lily was now in physical pain thinking about her in a broom closet with James Potter, snogging. It disgusted her more than she could ever imagine she could be disgusted. The way they teased her was funny most of the time, but the rest of the time it was just cringe worthy.

"You untie his tie and start to kiss his neck, leaving a trail of marks down the side of it."

"You get so into it that you start to sweat as he slowly takes off his shirt." Chris laughed.

"I thought you said this wasn't going to be too dirty! This is disgusting!" Lily said. She almost had enough with this picture in her head because it was so excruciatingly terrible that she just wanted it to end.

"We're almost done." Dana winked.

"As he starts to untie your tie the closet door opens to see Professor Slughorn and Professor McGonagall watching you both snog."

"You quickly try to fix your hair and James puts his shirt back on and you both get dentition and go your separate ways."

"It also turns out that Slughorn and McGonagall were also snogging in his classroom. Ah teachers romance."

Lily verbally gagged as she thought of this. She laughed a little too and could picture a messy haired McGonagall and a frazzled Professor Slughorn.

"That was quite the story. Disgusting but quite the story," Lily said.

"You enjoyed it, dont lie to us." Christine started to peel off her face mask as Lily had said those words.

"I enjoyed nothing of it," Lily said.

"Hey, we all know you can't resist getting Potter in trouble," Dana said. It was true, ever since Lily became a prefect she was busting James for more and more things.

"Subject change," Lily said. "So, Dana, I saw you talking to Sirius in the carriage and you seemed to be enjoying it."

"It was that obvious?" Dana looked semi surprised as if she had expected them to bring this up.

"Yes," Lily and Christine said at the same time.

"He's just so beautiful and charming, but did you see him when Remus and him were talking about Regulus? He looked so sad," Dana pouted. She hated seeing Sirius in any physical and emotional pain because it sadly hurt Dana too.

"He's still an arse," Christine said.

The girls started to gather their bags and make their way back up to the empty dormitory. It seemed like a cozy room with crimson bedsheets and while pillows on their four poster beds.

"Don't you feel just a little bad for him?" Dana asked. She acknowledged Chris's opinion and didn't bother to challenge it.

"Maybe just like the slightest little sliver, but we all knew he had childhood trauma and that makes up nothing for what he is today."

"Not even a little?" Lily seemed taken away by this because she knew Christine wasn't that cold hearted.

"He still treats people like trash," Chris simply said.

"I really wish he would take notice of me," Dana remarked as her head fell to look at the floor.

"He already has," Christine said simply.

"Not in that way, but maybe ask me out or something, but it's Sirius Black for crying out loud! He would never go out with me," Dana sulked.

"I have a brilliant idea!" Lily's green eyes gleamed with excitement.

"What is it?" Dana seemed all too eager to hear this idea.

"Okay so Dana wants a date with Black, then we'll give it to her."

"How?" Christine asked.

"By you, silly!"

"What why me?"

Dana watched the two girls talk back and forth with Christine having a confused look on her face.

"Because Black would actually confide in you. If you became friends with Black then youll be able to get Dana and him on a date!"

"That's brilliant!" Dana exclaimed. "Oh please, Chris, please, please, please, please."

Christine thought this through carefully and weighed the options. Option A is that she became friends with Sirius and caused him to fall in love with Dana and go out with her where they would fall so much in love that Christine would only need to talk to him at dinner with friends or option B would mean that Christine wouldn't be friends with Black, but just let Dana and him to fall together which would never happen.

Christine knew what she had to do. She knew she had to do something she didn't wish very much to do.

She breathed heavily and said, "Fine, I'll do it."

Dana jumped off the bed and surrounded Christine with the biggest hug in her life and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You start tomorrow," Lily said.

Now all Christine had to do was become friends with Sirius Black and convince him to go out with Dana. Not hard, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eventually, these chapters get shorter but when I bring it back they will be long again


	3. Lockhart

Christine was dreading the next morning. She knew she had to go down to breakfast and at least make small talk with Sirius. It was a dumb plan that she simply didn't want to go through with, but she was doing it for Dana. Every time that Christine thought about how dumb the plan was she would think about what it would do for Dana. She wanted Dana to be happy and she didn't want her to not be with Sirius.

She dragged her feet out of bed and took a shower, letting the warm water soothe her skin as she thought through the plan once more. After her shower she changed into her robes and dried her hair with a spell she had learned from Dana. She put some makeup on, brushed her teeth and made her way back up to her dormitory.

Dana was sitting on her bed looking all excited as Christine placed her toiletries back away in her trunk. She was practically bouncing off the walls. Lily was also there with her bag around her shoulder all ready to go for her first day of classes.

"Okay so today at breakfast-" Lily said.

"I will sit next to Sirius," Christine said in a dull tone.

"And what will you do?"

"Talk to him."

"And what don't you do?"

"Give attitude." Christine rolled her eyes. She more than anything didn't want to talk to the boy who was so cocky, arrogant, and self loving.

"I have an idea!" Dana spoke up. She had stood up and was looking around in amazement at the sudden idea that popped into her head.

"What is it?" Christine asked carefully.

"How about we make it look like we got into a fight and we set you up with technically "no" friends and then you can become closer to Sirius and he'll listen to you better," Dana rambled. It seemed like an idea out of the blue that might very well work and Christine couldn't help but be slightly terrified.

"That's brilliant," Lily said. A smile had broken out on her face and Christine knew that Lily had eaten the idea up.

"Okay but how will this work then?" Christine asked.

"Well Dana and I won't talk to you in public, only here, and we will call you Monroe and we'll just give you attitude and you have to act like you don't care."

Christine crossed her arms. "I'll have to think this through."

"Oh come on, Chris!" Dana said. "You have to do this, please, please, please, for me," she pouted.

Christine weighed the risks about her actually losing her friends, possibly disliking her friends, but the thought about not having them with her all the time hurt her the most, it was a thought she never wanted to have. She had spent her summer in her muggle house and only getting letters from Lily and the best part of Hogwarts for Christine was Dana and Lily, she didn't know if she could lose them like this.

She needed to think about how happy Dana would be again and who knows maybe this would be good for her as well. Maybe she would gain some new friends from this, what could possibly go wrong.

Christine took a deep breath as Dana and Lily waited in anticipation.

"Fine," she heaved.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Dana squealed.

Christine then got caught up in one of Dana's bone crushing hugs once again while she was still squealing.

"Why is this such a cliche plan?" Christine said after giving Lily a hug.

"We are teenagers," Lily said, smiling. "Now you need to look annoyed and go down to breakfast, Chris, good luck."

Dana and Lily gave her one more hug and to be fair the annoyed look was easy to master because of how annoying Dana and Lily had gotten. She didn't want to do this, but she wanted to help Dana with this stupid teenager plan.

Chris heaved her shoulders one more time, grabbed her bag and left down the staircase to the common room.

~**~

She walked into the Great Hall ready to do anything and everything to get Dana a date even if it made her feel really odd. She was ready, she looked annoyed, she was playing her part and she only needed to play this part till night where she would then be able to return to her friends where no one would know.

She spotted the Marauders and sighed once more. She saw an open seat next to Sirius and whispered, "Perfect."

She walked down the aisle and people were staring as she wasn't accompanied with Lily and Dana at her flanks. She looked behind her with the annoyed look on her face and saw Lily and Dana sit at the far end of the table looking absolutely miserable (of course playing their part as well).

She slipped her bag off and sat on the bench right next to Sirius, unannounced.

She felt awkward as the Marauders just stared at her in confusion. She tried not to look too awkward as she sat there and started to pour some cereal but she saw Peter nibbling at his toast while looking at her.

"Chris, you good?" asked Remus. Remus was simply just being nice and she needed to take a deep breath to take in the fake argument that the girls had gone over in the common room shortly before she left for breakfast.

"I'm perfectly fine," Christine aggressively said.

"You sure?" James asked this time.

The boys were incredibly nice to Christine and she knew that if she confided in them it would only push their friendship farther already or it would cause them to look in the other direction and leave right away.

"No." Christine slammed her spoon on the table in frustration with her mind and in her act.

"Need to talk about it?" James asked.

Christine tried not to give him the death glare so she simply looked at him in utter annoyance and said, "Dana, Lily and I had a fight and now they won't talk to me."

Christine looked from boy to boy and stopped as Sirius's grey eyes were looking at her in a little bit of worry.

"I thought you guys never fight," Sirius said quietly. It was nice for him to speak quietly and not loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear.

"Yes, yes, but I don't know, not anymore," she said. She felt sincere as she felt like they did have an argument.

"Well if you want to talk about it we are all here," Sirius said.

He gave her a side hug and it felt warm. He let her at least lay her head on his shoulder and she thought that this would help the friendship. The smell of him burned in Christine's nose as all she could smell were his robes. The smell of strawberries from his shampoo (what an odd kind of shampoo and it definitely wasn't the type of shampoo you'd expect Sirius to wear), a rich cologne that was so inviting, and she could smell a hint of firewhisky.

"Thank you," she said leaving her head on his shoulder. Yes, she was uncomfortable, and yes she knew that he smelt good, and she knew she needed to stay focused at the task at hand.

"All of us are here," James said too with a loving smirk. It was nice to see that he wasn't asking questions about Lily but he was simply just comforting.

"Here eat something," Sirius insisted. He shifted slightly so Christine could get off his shoulder and start eating the food.

Peter put some milk into her cereal and she was thankful for the runt of the marauders, he was under appreciated and he was kind and caring, she didn't know why he wasn't noticed more often.

She smiled as her eyes brimmed with tears. She now knew only after sitting with them for five minutes why people actually like them, they care. It was incredibly sweet that they were taking care of her and not flirting with everyone and joking around. How could these havoc makers be so kind to someone who had a fake fight with her friends. She couldn't help but imagine her fight being real and enduring the pain and smiling weakly at them all she thought was how incredibly kind they were to her.

~**~

Sirius watched as the girl ate her cereal and wrapped one arm around her in comfort. He didn't know why he felt like holding her close to his chest as she wept. Those girls were inseparable and had less fights then the marauders themselves. Sirius wanted to do anything to cheer her up but he had to resist, he had to keep his posture, he had to be kind, he knew he couldn't be moving fast, he didn't want that.

The tears from her eyes had gone and Sirius couldn't help but see how happy she was when James told her a joke and Sirius didn't smile at the joke but smiled at the look on Christine's face. She was munching away at her food and laughing as Sirius kept his arm around her shoulder.

~**~

"So then Snivellus tripped right into the puddle," James said loudly. Half the Great Hall could hear him yelling but Christine didn't care.

Christine laughed. She knew she shouldn't because Lily still deeply cared about him but Lily was supposed to be dead to her.

"James, don't waste all the good stories now," Sirius said cackling as well. Sirius still had his arm around Christine's shoulder and Christine didn't mind that much as long as it was all for Dana.

"Boys your timetables," Professor McGonagall approached. She was speaking in an intimidating and strict tone.

Sirius removed his arm and said, "Thanks, Minnie." He winked at her and she kept walking.

Christine sat there and quickly stood up, grabbed her bag and tried to catch up to Professor McGonagall who was giving out timetables to Lily and Dana.

"Professor!" Chris called.

"Yes, Miss Monroe?" Professor McGonagall turned.

"You forgot my timetable," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"I was sitting with the boys and you forgot my timetable." Christine didn't know if she liked the fact that she didn't notice her while she was with the boys, it was crazy.

Professor McGonagall looked at the boys and they smiled and nodded. It was like they could read her mind.

"I thought you'd be sitting with Miss Evans and Miss O'Brien. My apologies, Miss Monroe." Professor McGonagall smiled and gave Christine her timetable and continued her way down the table.

Christine looked at her "ex-best friends" and sat down. She wasn't aware of what she did and same as the girls.

Sirius was watching as she took a seat and he wondered if she was already going to make up because frankly he was the one that wanted to cheer her up, not the girls.

"Go away, bitch!" Lily said loudly.

Christine was shocked at the foul language that came out of Lily's mouth, but she remembered that they were fighting and Christine quickly grabbed her back and stood up.

Christine tried not to smile as she replied, "I was planning on doing that."

"I can't believe you sat down here. You are such an ungrateful toerag!" Lily's face was red and everyone was watching in excitement.

Everyone froze as Lily called Christine a toerag and that was something she only called James really. Everyone knew that it was now going down.

"Well I wouldn't be one if you listened to me!" Christine said just as loudly back.

"Why do I need to listen to you? Your opinions are shitty and no one wants to hear a damn word that comes out of your mouth!"

Christine froze. She had to let this sink in, pretend that it's real. All she wanted to do was just pretend.

"No."

"What?"

"No." Christine repeated calmly.

"What do you mean no?"

"I mean no. I know people don't want to hear a damn word that I'm saying, but do I care? No. So if you would please excuse me I have Transfiguration."

Christine picked up her bag and walked away in anger. She felt furious and she didn't understand why because those girls were still her friends and she hoped that they knew that too.

Christine found a broom closet, went in and collapsed into tears. She didn't like the plan, she didn't want to do it anymore. Had it only been half an hour? Yes. Did she just want to be with her friends? Yes.

She put her arms over her legs as she wept into them and wanted Lily to hug her and Dana to say encouraging words. She wanted her life back already. She knew the marauders were nice, but there was a part of her wishing that Sirius would just ask Dana out tomorrow.

She wanted out. Her world wasn't spinning and it only took thirty minutes. She needed something real, she wanted something real.

The door cracked open and she hoped that it wasn't Sirius or any of the marauders. She didn't want to talk to them then break into tears. She knew she was already a mess and she didn't want to make it any worse.

"You okay, Tinie?" said a Ravenclaw boy who was a year ahead of her.

Christine stood up and threw her arms around her friend Gilderoy Lockhart who was an incredibly cocky boy, who couldn't do anything but wish all the girls were into him, not the marauders.

Gilderoy was an average size boy with almost no muscle and he had blond hair that was always curled at the top of his head and blue eyes that were a dark shade. He had a smile that dazzled a lot of girls and always seemed to bother the girls by smiling and asking them if they wanted his autograph. He thought he was all that but he really wasn't.

"Are you okay, Tinie?" he asked again. He welcomed her openly and stroked the back of her head as she dug her head into his neck. He could be kind when he wanted to and that is why he was Christine's friend.

She pulled herself off of him and he held her face in his hands, slowly wiping the tears away from her face. She smiled at him because she missed the silly seventh year who was so kind to her.

"Yeah, for now," she said with a smile.

"Well that's good." He closed the broom closet door behind him and he sat on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Christine asked.

"Sitting down. I might cry as well. You never know." He gave his award winning smile and Christine sat down right beside him.

"How'd you find me?" Christine asked as Gilderoy wrapped an arm around her and let her head rest on his shoulder. Gilderoy never thought of Christine other than like a little sister and she was so thankful for that.

"Well I was on my way to the greenhouses and I heard sniffling from a broom cupboard and I saw you storm away at breakfast so I figured it was you." He breathed in the smell of her hair and placed his cheek on her head.

"So smart. I can see why you are in Ravenclaw." Christine laughed.

"I know right. I'm the most perfect Ravenclaw," he said cockly.

"Very humble."

"Humble is my middle name." He said proudly.

"Embarrassment sounds more like your middle name." Christine knew how embarrassing it was for Gilderoy around girls but she was also embarrassed at him being one of her best friends, but he was so kind.

"What embarrassment?" He was utterly confused, clearly he wasn't embarrassed by being rejected all the time.

"Roy, you're kidding me?"

"What?" He was very confused.

"You aren't always embarrassed?"

"Never," he said cockly. "Why would I be?" He smiled.

"For one, Roy, is that you're always rejected by girls." Christine was a little worried for Gilderoy because he wasn't embarrassed by anything.

"And why should that embarrass me?" He said softly.

"Because it openly hurts your big ego."

"And the second reason?" Gilderoy was already fed up with this but he kept holding her with her head on his shoulder.

"Secondly, is that you are always asking people if they want your autograph." She shrugged out of his arms and looked him in the eyes.

"Because I know one day I'll be super famous and be the best wizard ever and simply I just want them to feel special by having my autograph." He smirked.

"What makes you think that you'll be super famous?" This made him look more cocky and Christine couldn't help but laugh.

"If you know me then you'll know why I will be super famous."

"I have to go to class." Christine stood up and grabbed her bag and looked at Gilderoy laughing on the floor. He was giggling evilly. "What?"

"It worked," was all he said.

"What worked?" She laughed along with him.

"I made you happy, Tinie," Gilderoy said, looking into her eyes with a smile and Christine started to tear up again.

"Thank you." She jumped at Gilderoy and gave him another big hug. He held her tight and kissed her hair. She stood up and helped Gilderoy up and he wiped away the happy tears streaming down her face.

"I'll always be here for you, Tinie," he said with a smile.

"Yes sir, Mr. Lockhart." She laughed.

He looked at her one last time and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He smiled his brilliant smile with his white gleaming teeth.

"How will I ever survive? Gilderoy Lockhart just kissed my cheek," Christine goofed. She liked playing with him, but this was entirely sarcastic.

"There's more where that came from." Gilderoy gave her another peck on the cheek and smiled.

He turned around and winked before leaving to go to the greenhouse and Christine couldn't help but feel thankful that Gilderoy was still her friend. So very thankful.


	4. Animagus

Christine made her way to Transfiguration, books in hand. She felt proud to be Gilderoy's friend. When life brought her down Gilderoy would always bring her back up. Her whole life she would never forget when she got onto the Hogwarts express and stumbled into a compartment with Gilderoy, alone. She would always remember the blond 12 year old who made jokes with her.

She opened the door to her Transfiguration classroom. McGonagall quickly snapped her head in Christine's direction. She looked rather fine with the idea of her being late, so Christine snuck a seat beside James and pulled out her books.

Christine smirked as she saw that Dana had taken a seat next to Sirius and she was smiling mercilessly at him, but Sirius didn't seem to notice, like he had forgotten about their friendly interaction from the other day. Sirius had his hand under his chin and was looking bored as he was listening to McGonagall.

Christine felt bad for Dana as she felt like she was being ignored on purpose. Sirius Black would never ignore a girl looking at him like that. In fact Christine was sure that she had seen him corner a poor third year with that same look in their fourth year, Katie Vane was her name.

"Now, class," McGonagall spoke, "Welcome to your first N.E.W.T level class of Transfiguration, it only gets harder from here. In this class I will expect you and your study partner to hand in _all_ assignments and homework on time or you and your partner will both receive the same marks."

Lily raised her hand and James snapped his head towards her. She could tell by the look that he so badly just wanted Lily and Christine wanted him to have Lily. She smirked as she saw the need in his face.

"What, Monroe?" James asked as he saw her silently laugh to herself.

"What do you mean by study partners?" Lily asked. Some people nodded in agreement in their curiosity.

"It's just- nevermind, "she said laughing again.

"Whomever is sitting at your desk is now the person you complete all assignments with," McGonagall said.

Christine let this sink in and she remembered that James was very good at Transfiguration and even better is that Dana and Sirius were partners.

"Tell me," he begged.

"After class." She grinned. Their plan was working already, Dana and Sirius were going to have to be partners for the rest of the year and that pleased Christine. She knew they would get to spend more time with each other and Dana's face showed as she blushed and looked at her book. Sirius rolled his eyes and turned his head to James.

Sirius winked at Christine and she gave back a grimace then remembered she was supposed to become friends with him so she quickly changed to a little smirk that may or may not look like she was flirting with Black.

Sirius made a face at James that was slightly annoyed and a little playful. Christine looked at James in confusion and he was smirking and gave Sirius a wink.

Sirius turned back to face the front and he placed his hand under his chin once again, not even acknowledging Dana's presence. Dana seemed let down a little more and she finally took her quil and started to write down things that McGonagall was saying.

At the end of class everyone had packed up their bags and was about to leave.

"Black, Monroe," Professor McGonagall said quickly.

"I'll tell you that thing after," Christine said to James and he nodded slightly at her and gave a wink towards Sirius as he started to strut out of the room.

"Whatever have we done, Minnie?" Sirius asked. He had a smirk on his face and Professor McGonagall was looking at him with a stern face that slightly scared Christine.

"You have done nothing, Mr. Black, it is Miss Monroe that has done something," McGonagall said, and "you will help her."

He smirked at her.

Christine looked away from Sirius and asked, "what do I need help with?"

"I need Mr. Black here to teach you how to become an animagi."

Christine stopped and so did Sirius.

 _McGonagall wants me to become an animagi?_ Christine thought. She also didn't know why Sirius would help her, but obviously it was because he was one as well.

"E-excuse me, Professor?" Sirius said. Sirius was just as shocked. He didn't know how Professor McGonagall knew that he was an animagus and he didn't want to know if she knew that James and Peter were one too.

"Did just you ask Black to teach me to become an animagi?" Christine asked in astonishment as she heard this. She didn't know if she was up to the challenge, but she would do it, only if Sirius would help her.

"Yes I did and yes, Mr. Black, I indeed know that you are an animagus, the Grim, am I correct?" Professor McGonagall said.

McGonagall sat down with a happy expression and Christine and Sirius were standing there, mouths almost gaping open.

"Y-yes, ma'am," Sirius said. He looked at his hands. He felt sweaty, he thought he could keep this secret safe.

"Then you'll teach her." She placed her hands on her desk and looked at Sirius. "Are you up for it, Mr. Black? Or shall I ask Potter?"

Sirius looked at Christine and she looked back. Her dark blue eyes were tempting as they pleaded with him and he knew he wanted to be kind to her, he wanted to help her if he was being honest.

"Why?" Christine said, looking away from Sirius as she could see how scared Sirius looked.

"Because Professor Dumbledore says it will be of some use."

"Then why didn't he tell us directly?" Christine truly knew she wanted the truth, nothing false.

"He didn't tell me, but he told me to tell you and make Mr. Black do it."

Christine turned to Sirius and looked at him, straight into his tempting grey eyes as he looked dangerously into hers. "Will you?" She didn't know why Dumbledore wanted her to become an animagus but she wanted a chance at it.

He smiled to himself and said, "Of course."

"Perfect you will start tonight." McGonagall stood up and took out a book list and handed it to Christine. "There is a list of Transfiguration books you will need and I would like a 12 inch paper on what an animagus is on Monday."

"Good luck," Sirius said laughing.

"You will join her, Mr. Black and you will too hand in a paper."

"But, Professor-"

"No buts, Black. You will study tonight in the library. You better get going now, kids." As she said that the first years came filing in, looking terrified. "Take a seat please."

Christine and Sirius looked at each other and started to walk out of the classroom.

Sirius watched the first years after they got out of the classroom in awe. It was cute of him to watch the little kids and smile as they looked scared and took out their quills with their hands shaking.

Christine started to walk away and Sirius caught up to her quickly and he started walking beside her.

"Do you have class?" Sirius asked. He smiled down at her.

"No, I have a free period," Christine responded.

"Library?"

At that moment James came running down the hall with his books in his hands and his hair messy.

"Hey, Prongs," Sirius said.

James held up a hand and was panting like a maniac, clearly he was overdramatic. James was known for being overdramatic, he was just a person to act like that. He was more dramatic than Gilderoy.

"Hey, Pads," James said, finally standing up straight and messing his already messy hair up. He fixed his glasses that were crooked.

"Yes, Potter?" Christine asked. She didn't know if she was in the mood for James's shenanigans as she was currently thinking about becoming an animagus.

"You were going to tell me something after class," he said. He started to walk between Sirius and Christine as they made their way to the common room.

"Oh right," she laughed to herself.

"What?" Sirius asked. He was much more interested in this even if he knew that he would have to put Christine through the suffering that he did when he was learning to become an animagus.

"Well Lily asked a question in class and you watched her with gooey eyes and it was just funny to watch." She looked at the ground laughing to herself.

"That's nothing new," Sirius said.

"Seriously?"

James started laughing.

"What?" Christine was utterly confused but Sirius was chuckling to himself as well.

"You said seriously." James was howling in laughter at this point.

"What's so funny about that?" She looked at Sirius and he started breaking down in laughter and Christine watched with a smile playing on her lips.

"Get it?" James said between laughs.

"No." She smiled.

" _Siriusly_ ," Sirius said.

She couldn't help but start laughing at her own joke as it was funny. They were all laughing and trying to communicate between their laughs but it was almost impossible. She watched the boys as they would hold onto each other while laughing, like they both hadn't laughed in a long time. She watched them in envy of what kind of friendship they had. True she loathed them, but at this moment she was kind of happy to be with them as they brought up her spirits about her friends.

They made their way back up to the common room not less than five minutes later and the boys almost threw themselves on the couch as Sirius put his feet on the table and his hands behind his head.

"So what did McGonagall want?" James asked. Christine sat silently at the foot of the couch, not wanting to get too comfy yet.

Christine looked at Sirius with a worried look and Sirius only winked at her. She didn't want to tell James she was going to become an animagus and she didn't even know if James knew that Sirius was one.

"Chrisy here barely passed her OWL for Transfiguration and I'm now her tutor," Sirius said with a smile.

James started to laugh once again and said, "You? Sirius Black? You've got to be joking, Padfoot."

Sirius gave him a kind smile, "I'm not, ask her."

Christine was so distracted by the fact that Sirius had come up with that amazing plan, that would explain their absences from places, and going to the library more often.

"Chris?" James asked.

"Oh." She snapped out of it. "Yeah, I barely made it." She was quite brilliant with Transfiguration and even more brilliant at Ancient Runes even if that wasn't the point.

"Well I can help if you want, I want to be more responsible," James said with a smile.

Sirius almost died laughing when he said that and Christine started laughing as well. When did James Potter want to be responsible? Who knew those words could even come out of his mouth.

"Why is that funny?" James asked. He grabbed the pillow next to him and hit Sirius with and then out of anger threw it lightly at Christine's face.

Sirius stopped when he threw the pillow at her but Christine didn't mind or even seem to notice as she was still laughing away at what James had said. Her face was turning red and Sirius knew how lucky he was to be tutoring her out of all people. He had to correct himself in his head by saying _Teaching her to become an animagi_. He knew that it was a long process but he imagined a bird maybe flying around pecking Remus who was a werewolf on a full moon to stop him from escaping. Of course Sirius knew it would take longer to master the ability but he just kept making up situations.

"You okay, Black?" Christine said. He looked at her and her face was still red but she was over the laughter. He saw a smile play upon her lips and he smiled to himself.

"Of course I am," he said with a wink.

"When are you guys studying first?" James asked.

To be fair Christine didn't want James to help even if it would just start off with looking up animagi and she wanted to do some research on how to become one.

"We were going to go to the library now, but then you came." Sirius looked at Christine as she was intently listening but watching James' reaction instead of watching Sirius as she talked.

"Why didn't McGonagall ask me?" James wondered.

"Why would she?" Christine said. Yes, all of the Marauders were great at Transfiguration, but to be fair why would James ask him even if it was just for tutoring, no one could trust James Potter with their grades.

"Because we're partners in her class," James said simply.

As he said that Lily and Dana walked into the common room and were giggling. Christine was looking at them hopefully and then remembered their stupid dating plan and turned back to the boys.

She almost jumped when she saw Sirius was watching her in worry. But he wasn't smiling, winking, flirting, he was just watching her carefully.

Sirius knew that the girls had a fight and he didn't want anyone to jinx her or even yell at her. He wanted to make sure she was okay. He knew he couldn't trust Lily and Dana even if he tried because when he looked at them, they would glare at Christine, but when it was just the two of them he would see Dana look at him in a way he was all too familiar with. He thought that maybe being flirting with Dana would make Christine jealous but it did nothing as on the train she watched them and was content that she wasn't the one under his arm.

 _Maybe that's why she is suddenly talking to me_ , Sirius thought.

The girls stopped and Lily clenched her jaw and looked at Christine with mostly a glare in her eyes, but a hint of sadness. Clearly this plan hurt Lily already.

The girls walked up to the dormitory and Christine had a hard time not getting up and walking up there right behind her best friends, but instead she stayed put.

She looked at James and he was totally normal and wasn't staring like a crazy man at Lily and she didn't call him a toerag.

Sirius was still watching her carefully and Christine got a shiver down her spine as his grey eyes burrowed into her soul. She was thankful for this new worry but she was already finding Sirius a better person then she thought, maybe it wasn't going to be as hard as she thought to become his friend.

~**~

The rest of the day passed very quickly. Christine almost fell asleep in Potions, History of Magic, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Those were her least favourite classes, she was good at none of them.

Potions would drag on and Professor Slughorn would only really talk to his favourite students.

History of Magic was History of Magic, but she needed to take it to be what she wanted to be. Professor Binns would talk in a monotone as he dragged on and on. The only people in that class still were her, Lily, Remus, and a few Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and no Slytherins. History of Magic was no one's favourite.

Defence Against the Dark Arts never interested her because she felt no need for needing it in her job area, but every time she thought that the war went on in her head.

There was a war going on in the outside world and of course that made Hogwarts a lot more empty as people were pulling their kids out so they could go into hiding, it was mostly the muggleborns. They were the most in danger as Voldemort's reason for this whole war was blood purity, and that meant that Lily and Christine were both in danger from this war, but Chrisitne didn't dare tell her parents. Her parents would probably take her away and the only form of happiness for her would be gone and it would never come back. Lily told her parents and they let her go but told her to be very careful and always be accompanied by someone, everywhere. That didn't help with the prefect patrols.

By the time Ancient Runes came she was so bored that it brought up her spirits thankfully. She loved Ancient Runes, but there was no one she knew in her class so she had to just suffer alone which she didn't mind. It was her favourite class and she wanted to become a Translator so she needed to pass her History of Magic OWL, and Astronomy. She both exceeded those subjects and got O's on 6 of her OWLs. She got E's on Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions.

At dinner time she went to the Great Hall by herself after starting to translate a new scroll they were giving in Ancient Runes, she always got that homework done.

She went into the brilliantly big Great Hall and saw Sirius stare at her and she made her way to go sit next to the Marauders. She was sort of upset when Dana and Lily didn't go up to the dormitory because she just wanted to talk to them.

She sat down and watched as James very sudley watched Lily. She was talking to a fifth year Ravenclaw who was looking at her with great interest and Lily was blushing. Christine knew that James was cursing that boy in his mind and it was sort of funny, but she held back the laughter.

Sirius was on her left side and she started to pile food onto her plate and kept her gaze away from the girls.

"I hear that Sirius is tutoring you," Remus said. Remus placed his book down to eat some of his food. She almost forgot he was there because he was hiding behind a potions textbook.

"Yeah. Barely passed so McGonagall put him on the job," she responded as Sirius sat there quietly, eating his food slowly.

"I don't know why she didn't ask someone else," Remus muttered.

"Why?"

"Have you met Sirius?" Remus said with a smile.

"Hey, just because I don't do the homework doesn't mean that I'm terrible at Transfiguration," Sirius said.

"You don't do the homework?" she said in astonishment. He was always favoured when it came to homework, but being able to behave wasn't his strong suit.

"He copies mine," Remus pointed out.

"Well now I have another person I can copy off of." Sirius winked.

"Who?" Christine and Remus asked at the same time.

"Chrisy." He looked at Remus with a smile and Remus shook his head in disagreement.

"You have a thick skull," Remus said, picking his book up and starting to read once again.

"What?" Sirius asked. He was confused, she guessed that trying to put on the charm was a struggle around Christine. He clearly wasn't that bright.

"Remember I _barely_ passed Transfiguration," she said, rolling her eyes and looking down at her plate once again.

"Black, Monroe," McGonagall said from behind them. That made Christine's pumpkin juice dribble down her chin and Sirius to flinch.

"Sorry, Professor," Christine said first.

"It's quite alright," she said. "Now due to the arrangement you two will now be study partners. And you, Potter." James snapped his head towards her. "You will be study partners with O'Brien."

McGonagall walked away to go and inform Dana and Christine froze. She thought about how much this would backtrack the plan to get Dana and Sirius together. She had so much to do like be cupid and become an animagus which was enough pressure.

"Well we better get to the library," Sirius said standing up. James, Remus, and Peter all looked at him, eyes widened.

"Padfoot, what did you just say?" James said.

"That Chrisy and I should go to the library, we have a session and plus we have that paper Minnie assigned us."

"Who are you? And what have you done with Sirius?" James said.

Everyone had dropped whatever they were holding and were watching Sirius. It was very odd behavior for Sirius to actually want to go and study.

"So you're not just going to copy Christine's? Or make her do the whole thing?" James said.

"Why would I do that?"

Remus couldn't help but burst out in laughter and so did James. Peter sat there awkwardly giggling away at this.

Christine looked up at Sirius and he had his hand out.

"What do you say, duckling? Study?" Sirius asked hopefully. He wanted her to take his hand.

"Sure, but I'm not touching your hand," Christine responded, standing up from dinner and grabbing some bread for her to eat.

"Why not?"

"Because who knows what girl that has been in," Christine replied sniggering.

Sirius rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag he had at his feet as they started to walk to the common room to pick up her bag.


	5. Friends

They went back to the common room and grabbed her books. They made their way to the library without saying a word, just standing side by side walking there.

They reached the old library and Madame Pince was sitting there organizing a cabinet, taking no notice of the two of them walking into the library.

They sat down at a table and pulled out their books to start working.

"I need to find these books," Christine said. Her bun had now gotten messy and her chocolate brown hair was in wisps around her head.

"Let me help you," Sirius said. He stood up and walked with Christine as she maneuvered her way through the library.

Christine didn't know the library too well. Whenever she came it was always Lily who knew where all the books were and what books you needed. Clearly, Sirius felt the same because they were looking at all of the books on the shelf.

"The Art of Transfiguration volume 12 first," Christine said, looking at the parchment Professor McGonagall gave them.

"Do you happen to know where it would be?" Sirius asked. He pulled a few books out and opened to cover because none of these books had the title on them.

"Where the other 11 volumes are?" Christine said. She laughed a little bit and took out a few books.

"Okay, then what other books do we need?"

Christine grabbed a spear piece of parchment and started to jot down the names of the books on the list. The list only named books and not pages so it was going to be hard to study but Christine knew they could manage.

"Here," she said. She handed him the parchment and he looked at it with confusion. He looked rather handsome when he was confused but Christine pushed that out of her mind and started to search for more books.

"I know where none of these are." Sirius handed her the parchment and Christine glared at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Keep the parchment."

"Why?"

"Because then you can look from the list to the book you're looking at and maybe recognize the book," she said simply.

"Okay."

Sirius turned back to his shelf and kept searching through it. Every once in a while hed ask her to decipher some weird language but she had to keep reminding him that she was good at ancient runes, not translating languages.

They had searched through three different aisles and Sirius said, "Aha!"

"What?" Christine jumped to look at the book he was holding. His eyes were gleaming with joy as he looked at the book with pride.

"Look this is the Art of Transfiguration volume 12!" Sirius seemed very excited about this.

"Good job, that only took what?" She looked at the clock on the wall and it was now eight o'clock. "An hour?"

"Okay well at least we have one of them," Sirius said reassuringly.

"Still we have three other books we need to find," Christine huffed.

"We're so dumb," Sirius said as he walked back to where their bags were and crossed the Art of Transfiguration volume 12 off of the list. His dark hair was falling over his face as he did so and Christine could've sworn she saw a girl turn red as he bent over to cross the name out. But even Christine knew that Sirius had a good ass.

"Okay let's keep looking," Sirius said.

Christine caught his arm and Sirius turned to look at her, running his hand through his hair.

"Remus was right," Christine said.

Sirius smirked and said, "About what?"

"You have a thick skull."

Christine started to walk towards Madame Pince but Sirius this time caught her arm and turned her around to look at him.

"Now, Chrisy, why do I have a thick skull?" he asked. He was giving a flirtatious look but Christine could easily ignore the way he was looking at her, she knew this would happen when she signed up for the job.

She rolled her eyes and yanked her arm away from Sirius's firm hand.

"Because you were actually going to go back there and look for those books." Christine laughed a little at how dumb he was.

"Well we need the books."

Christine walked right up to Madame Pince and Sirius walked right up next to her.

Madame Pince barely looked up from her book and said, "Yes?"

"We were wondering if you could help us find these books," Christine said.

She handed Madame Pince the parchment and she looked at it and a couple of books started flying from all different places and they gathered on her desk.

Christine was still amazed at how wonderful magic was, it would astonish her every day.

"Here you go. And please no snogging," Madame Pince said. It made Christine seize up but Sirius seemed utterly oblivious.

"There's no need to worry about that," Christine said.

"That's what they all say," Madame Pince mumbled to herself.

Sirius scooped the books up and they walked to their table near the bag corner of the library to make sure no one saw them looking up animagi.

"So where should we start?" Sirius said. He looked a little concerned about all the books scattered everywhere and the parchment and quills also everywhere.

"Probably looking up what animagus are. I'll write down notes from this book and you write some from this one."

She passed Sirius a big book and Sirius huffed as he looked at it. He didn't seem keen on the thought of actually having to study.

Christine didn't think for a second before opening her book and immediately looking for what the animagus were.

Christine wrote with her quill, _Animagi are witches and wizards able to turn into an animal at any-_

Sirius huffed again as he had a fist pressed to his temple with his elbow on the table as he flipped through the pages not even picking up his quill.

Christine ignored him and kept writing.

_Time as they wish. It as an acquired skill-_

Another huff.

Christine rolled her eyes and kept writing.

_That normally takes a while to master-_

Huff.

_Unlike the metamorphmagus, animagi are not-_

A very audible groan.

_Born, they are made-_

Sirius once again groaned as he looked at the book. He collapsed his head into the middle of the page.

"What do you want, Black?" Christine said. She was still skimming her book and taking notes as she saw some information she could put on her parchment.

"This is boring," Sirius said quickly.

"Okay, then work."

Sirius stared at her as she was so concentrated on writing down everything she saw necessary. A smile played on his lips as he watched her.

Sirius picked up his quill and started to doodle instead of actually writing things down. He found studying extremely boring and there was no point to it if he already knew what an animagus was.

"Why don't we leave?" Sirius asked. He was very impatient and couldn't pay attention which thoroughly annoyed Christine.

"Why don't we leave when it closes," Christine said. She was focused on all of these facts she was writing down that she didn't notice Sirius closing the book.

"But that's in an hour," Sirius sighed.

"You know you have to do this assignment too."

"Yes, but I'll just ask Moony to write it." Their stupid nicknames again.

"You're going to write it, Black," Christine said firmly.

Sirius was slightly taken aback from this because he felt the urge to actually listen to her and write the damn essay. Sirius didn't know how but he turned to the books and opened one to find a page on animagi.

It was quiet and peaceful for a little while as they were suddenly both studying. Christine felt proud of herself for being able to get Black to study. She knew that he had never really gone to the library and never really studied for exams. To be fair Christine didn't either, but she at least did her own school work.

"You know you can call me Sirius," Sirius said. He barely looked up from his parchment as he said these words. He wanted to hear his name come out of her mouth.

"Why?" Christine looked up at him and saw him writing things down on the parchment.

"Well because at the moment your friends aren't talking to you and I don't fancy being called Black," Sirius said simply. He didn't like his name, he hated it. Of course he wasn't going to change it but it always brought back memories of his childhood.

Christine didn't want to question it.

"Okay, Sirius," she said slowly.

Sirius felt his body warm at her calling her Sirius. He wanted to know why out of all the girls in Hogwarts this one girl made him go crazy.

"Can I ask you something?" Christine asked.

Sirius looked up at her and said, "Yes?"

"Well you're an animagus and I was wondering why you became one?"

Sirius smiled at the story. "Can I trust you?"

"Yes.:

"Do you solemnly swear that you will not tell a soul?"

"I solemnly swear not to tell anyone," she said honestly. She looked into his grey eyes as they stared at her in a calm state.

"Okay because if you do I will be in some deep shit." Sirius smiled.

"I swear."

Sirius looked at her kind eyes and moved seats to sit next to her so no one would hear this. He knew he could trust her, he knew she wouldn't tell anyone. He wanted her to know.

"First of all," he took a deep breath, "Remus is a werewolf."

"What?" She said loudly.

Sirius shushed her and kept going.

"During our first year Remus didn't tell us-"

"How did he become a werewolf?" Christine whispered.

"I'll let him tell you that, duckling."

Christine rolled her eyes at this nickname.

"Remus was afraid that we would find out and we'd treat him differently and when we found out in second year we were supportive of him-"

"That was very nice of you guys," Chris said sweetly.

"You're the worst listener." Sirius laughed.

"Okay fine, I won't interrupt anymore." Christine folded her hands on the table and watched him, listening.

"Anyways, we got the idea in our 3rd year when Minnie was talking to us about animagi. We didn't put much thought into until James told the rest of us his idea. We told Remus that we'd become animagi to help him, control him, and to keep him company on full moons. It took a long time but last year we mastered it and every full moon since we sneak out to the shrieking shack and help him."

Christine took a second to take in the information. She knew that the boys were anything but selfish with this information. She awed at the fact that they didn't want to leave Remus alone.

"What form do you guys take?" Christine asked. She wanted to know just in case there was a random cat acting really oddly that wasn't Professor McGonagall.

"Peter is a rat, Prongs is a stag, and I am a dog or the Grim." Sirius smirked. He liked calling himself the Grim as his dog form looked almost exactly like it.

Christine laughed. "You are not the Grim."

"Next Hogsmeade visit I'll show you," he said plainly.

She rolled her eyes and looked at him once again. Those grey eyes were borrowing deeper and deeper into hers.

"That was honestly very nice of you guys. You, James, and Peter didn't judge Remus, you didn't want him to be alone through it, that was incredibly kind and I never picked you as the type to do something like that."

"Well believe it or not, I am." Sirius smirked.

"Very humble."

"You know it." He winked at her.

They sat there for a few minutes as Christine was still thinking over what the Marauders did for Remus. She thought of how Remus must now feel as he was no longer alone.

"I want to help," Christine said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I master this animagus thing, I want to help. I want to keep you guys company on full moons." Christine knew that if she were to become an animagus she wanted to help people with her new gift, she wanted to help Remus.

Sirius watched her as she said this and he knew that this girl would do anything for her friends. He knew that if she could she would want Lily and Dana to be friends with her again, but he wasn't sure if he wanted the girls to be friends with her. He wanted to make sure that she had friends that wouldn't leave her at any time.

"I think the boys would like that," Sirius said. He was smirking at her.

She smiled and returned to her book but she could feel Sirius's eyes watching her in an intense glance.

"What are you doing?" Christine asked with a small laugh.

"What do you mean?" Sirius smirked. He was trying to put on his charm but clearly it was either confusing Christine or making her annoyed.

"Are you trying to flirt with your eyes?" Christine said with a little more of an audible laugh.

"Um- I- what? No," Sirius tried to say as cool as he could. His face was turning a light shade of pink.

"You are," Christine said. She was about to start laughing very loudly but she was aware of Madame Pince.

"I am not. If I was you could clearly tell."

Sirius stood up as Christine started to place the library books in her bag. She was laughing and Sirius was packing up his stuff as well.

"Well you are because I can clearly tell." She swung her bag over her shoulder and started to walk out of the library with Sirius walking up right next to her. "You've been flirting with me all night."

"What? No I haven't," Sirius said nervously. He was never really nervous around girls but he couldn't help but rub his hand on the back of his neck.

She kept looking forward, smiling as she walked down the corridor.

"You're not as smooth as you think you are," she said.

At that moment Sirius grabbed her arm and sort of pushed her to the wall and placed his arms by the side of her head. Sirius wanted to kiss this girl, he wanted to do things that he had done with other girls but mean it more.

She looked into his grey eyes as they stared down at her. Her breathing didn't slow, it remained the same and the same as her heart rate.

Sirius wanted her deep blue eyes to portray the look of other girls he had placed in this situation but they didn't. They remained the same they looked when she was talking to Madame Prince, James, and even Professor McGonagall. Sirius just wanted a reaction but this girl gave none and that annoyed him to the core. He found it very attractive that she was the same around him as her friends even if he was so annoyed with the look in her eyes.

Sirius started to lean in to kiss her but she said, "If you come even a little bit closer you are going to wish that you were never born."

Her eyes were hard and Sirius saw that and immediately released his arms from the wall and placed them in his pockets.

She looked at him one last time before stomping away to the common room.

~**~

The common room was very busy with people talking away and studying but Christine made her way up to her dormitory right away. She wanted to clear her head but she knew she needed to talk to the girls, to vent. She knew she couldn't tell them about Remus, becoming an animagus, and of course the almost kiss. She needed to lie to her friends and she really didn't want to.

She walked into the dormitory and Dana and Lily both looked up from their books as Christine walked in. She was calmer than she thought she could be. She thought she was going to come in and start yelling.

"How was your day?" Christine asked. She placed her bag at the end of her bed and sat down on it.

"Kind of dull without you," Dana said in her usual sweet voice. Christine used to wonder why Sirius never found Dana attractive but now she knew because of the almost kiss and the nervous rambling.

"I'm not that bad, Dana!" Lily said. She had seemed really annoyed at something, but no one questioned it.

"You made me study during our free period when we have very little homework!" Dana exclaimed back.

"This is not the point. What do you have to report, Chris?" Lily seemed really pissed at this point but she looked at Christine with an attentive look in her eyes.

"Well the Sirius friendship is progressing well, except we took a step back with the re-partnering Sirius and Dana." Christine knew she needed to keep her day as plain as she could, she couldn't say much or else the girls would find out about the only interesting things in her day.

"Was our little brawl believable to the boys?" Lily asked.

Dana seemed to be absent from this conversation as she was listening to every word Christine was saying, just hoping Sirius said something about her.

"It was believable to Gilderoy." She knew that was the best way to put it.

Dana and Lily both rolled their eyes at his name. They didn't like Gilderoy. They thought he was a brainless git but he was, but he was a caring brainless git.

"Gilderoy isn't a part of this," Lily said.

"I think Sirius believed it," Dana said.

"How?"

"Well in Transfiguration when I tried to talk about meeting up to study he would look at me oddly and just not listen. It hurt a little, but I think he doesn't like me due to that fight," Dana said.

"He was acting weird in Transfiguration," Lily said.

"I doubt that was the reason. Maybe he just didn't want to hear anything from his admirers," Christine said a little too cold.

The girls both scoffed at Christine's tone and it was understandable because it was a rude thing to say.

"I'm going to do my patrol," Lily said. She stood up and didn't give Christine another look but she could feel a glare coming out from the back of her head.

"I'm going to bed," Dana said sadly.

She stood up and grabbed clothing for her to change in the bathroom. She left without a look at Christine.

Christine knew she had screwed up. There was so much she wanted to say, she wanted to apologize but clearly that wouldn't work. She wondered if she was now in a fight with the girls. She knew it would help with the plan, but she simply didn't want them to ignore her forever.

All of it felt like her fault. She was already causing problems between the girls and making fun of Dana's crush and she knew that would do nothing for their friendship. She felt terrible.

~**~

Christine couldn't sleep as the other four girls in their dorm (Alice Fortescue, Marlene McKinnon, plus Lily and Dana) slept soundly.

She couldn't stop thinking about all the problems that she was already causing and it got her annoyed very much.

She climbed out of bed and put a jumper on. She was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants as she made her way down the stairs of the dormitory. It was three in the morning and she didn't know if she even wanted to sleep.

She arrived in the common room and it was empty other than the boy sitting on the couch.

Christine could tell who that boy was from a mile away. She knew it was Sirius.

She walked over to the couch and said, "Can I sit here?"

"Sure," he replied, barely even looking up at her.

She sat slowly next to him and he pulled his arm off the top of the couch and let it rest by his side.

He wasn't wearing a shirt. He had abs and Christine tried not to start blushing as she saw them. His chest was muscular and Christine understood why every girl found themselves fawning over him.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked. He wanted for her to forget what happened that evening, he wanted to be friends.

"No. You?"

"Not tonight."

He looked intently at the fire he had started in the fireplace. It was crackling, making the squishy arm chairs look very cozy.

"Look," he said quietly. "I'm really sorry about what happened tonight. I didn't mean to be like that and clearly you didn't want me to."

"It's quite alright," she replied. She had forgotten even that Sirius almost kissed her.

"It's just normally when I talk to girls they expect me to flirt so I've just gotten accustomed to it." That was half true. He wouldn't flirt with all girls, just 90% of them.

"Like I said, it's quite alright. I've kind of forgotten that it happened."

They sat there for a minute just staring at the fire. They didn't look at each other but listened to the soothing sound of the fire and feeling the warmth of it.

"Why do you trust me?" Christine said, not even looking away from the fire.

"What do you mean?" Sirius turned to look at her and she was looking back at him.

"Why do you trust me with the secret you told me?"

He looked at her for a second and gave in. "Maybe it's because you seemed lonely today. I don't really know. I just trust you if you get what I mean."

"I get it. I feel the same way." She did feel like she could just pour her heart out to this boy. She wanted to tell him about her friend's fight, she wanted to tell him about her family, but she knew that was a story for another time.

"You do?"

"Yes."

They sat quiet for another minute when Christine broke the silence and said, "The girls aren't talking to me and I would really love it if you would consider becoming my friend?"

Sirius stared at her. He wanted to be her friend so badly.

Christine kept speaking, "Merlin, that sounded so cheesy. I sound like I am five asking a random stranger at the pool to be my friend."

"Yes," Sirius said.

Christine looked at him and a smile broke a part on her face. She was so happy that Sirius said yes, she wanted to be her friend. She didn't know that after one day she could already like this boy even more than she did before.

Sirius watched her as she smiled and he pushed his feelings aside for her. He wanted their friendship to work so badly and Christine did too. They both knew this was the beginning of a great friendship.


	6. Boyfriend

"How does this look?" Sirius said. He put his hair in a bun and placed his wand right through it.

"Absolutely ridiculous," Remus said laughing a little bit then returning to his textbook.

"You mean riddikulus." Sirius smirked at his little joke and the marauders plus Christine all started laughing at this.

The past month for Christine was mainly just hanging out with the boys as they treated her like their own. Christine made no attempt to talk to Dana and Lily but they kept asking for updates but Christine knew they were reluctant to listen. She barely told them anything as she felt no need to. Christine didn't care how fast the plan went because she was starting to like the Marauders.

"What do you think, duckling?" He asked Christine. Christine got used to his little pet nickname but she still tended to call him Black.

"It's not your style," Christine said. She stood up from the grass of the courtyard and pulled the wand out of the bun making his hair fall down. Christine saw as girls blushed as he ran his hands through his hair to fix it, but the only girl she saw doing that was Dana.

"Give me it back," Sirius goofed. Christine held it above her head but Sirius only just smirked and tried to grab it from her hands, but she took a step backwards.

"Not so fast, Sirius," Christine teased.

Christine saw Remus's smirking while looking at her from the corner of her eyes. Out of all the marauders she liked Remus the best. He still hadn't told her he was a werewolf, but she trusted he would soon. He tended to always end up following her gaze wherever she went, but it always landed on Sirius as he was always around Christine.

"Please, duckling?" Sirius asked looking into her eyes with puppy eyes. Of course they didn't work on her but she gave in.

She handed him his wand and miserably went back to the tree that they were sitting at. She took a seat beside Remus who handed her another Transfiguration book and she opened it ready to read through the material she needed as the full moon was coming up and she was going to start the process of becoming an animagus.

"I liked it," James said. He was sitting there looking like a schoolgirl.

"Piss off, Potter," Christine grumbled.

"Gladly." James gave a goofy smile to Christine and she grimaced at him. "Come, Pads." James grabbed Sirius's arm and he lazily stood up. He gave a 'help me' glance and then left towards the common room.

Christine and Remus sat there for a few minutes just reading their books. Peter had stumbled away towards the common room after the boys with his sweets in hand and left Christine and Remus alone there.

"So how's studying going?" Remus asked. He was wearing a beige sweater and some plain blue jeans.

"It's going good. I'm actually getting extra credit for the extra work I'm handing in." And she knew she would definitely pass if she could turn into an animagus.

"That's great." He looked up from his book with wonder in his stare. "Why would she make Sirius tutor you?"

She froze for a second as she knew that Remus wouldn't buy her excuse because out of all the marauders she seemed to always be around Remus when she wasn't with Sirius and it was like he knew her really well already.

"Um, well." She was freaking out and knew she had to tell Remus. "Walk with me?" She asked.

She stood up and jammed the book into her bag and Remus simply just nodded as he placed his books in his bag as well.

They were walking down the side of the black lake till they were by some rocks and they sat down there. There were no students around which made Christine so very thankful.

"There's a reason Sirius has been tutoring me." Technically he was teaching me, but Christine didn't like to think of Sirius as a teacher.

"I figured there had to be," Remus responded. He was looking with interest at Christine.

"I passed Transfiguration with an O," she mumbled.

"Pardon?" Remus looked down at her and she tilted her head up to the tall boy.

"I passed Transfiguration with an Outstanding, I don't need to be tutored," she admitted.

"So you and Sirius are sneaking off in the evenings? Are you doing couple things?" He was never one to make a situation awkward but avoid everything but not at the moment, he just made it awkward.

She squirmed on the rock and looked at him and started to burst out laughing. She thought it was too funny because she was hanging out with Sirius because of Dana's huge crush on him.

"Did I miss something?" Remus asked. She didn't know if he was confused or just dimwitted.

"Sorry," she said between laughs, "sorry, it's just." She laughed again. "You think that Sirius and I?" She kept laughing.

"Are you not?"

She tried to slow down her laughter so she thought of the reasons she wanted to walk with him and that almost immediately changed her expression.

"No." She laughed a little again. "He's been teaching me to become an," she froze on the next word and then she choked it out. "Animagus."

Remus froze for a second and stared at her. She started to freak out internally just in case she wasn't supposed to tell him about her lessons with Sirius or the fact that she was going to be one. She wanted to tell him that she would help him through his full moons, but she didn't. She watched Remus and he opened his mouth a few times to talk but nothing came out.

"Remus?"

"Yeah?" He looked into her eyes and then relief flooded them. "You and Sirius aren't a thing? Do you like him?" He seemed relieved to actually hear that Sirius and her hadn't been snogging in the library.

"No, of course not. And no, I don't like him." Out of all the marauders the only one she knew she would ever have a crush on was Remus. She wouldn't date Sirius due to Dana having a crush on him, James because he was so infatuated with Lily, and definitely no to Peter because he seemed nothing but just someone who tagged along.

He mumbled to himself and Christine didn't hear what he said.

"Pardon?"

He looked into her eyes and a smirk bursted across his face. "Good."

"Why?" She saw the relief in his eyes and it flooded her senses.

"I-I," he struggled with his words. "This may sound very idiotic and stupid, but I-I-I like you. And let me just say that I've liked you since first year."

Christine froze in her seat as she stared into those brown eyes that were very soft. She couldn't believe this, but there was a part of her that liked Remus too. He was a kind boy, he was thoughtful, he was so sweet, and he would help anyone.

"Remus I-"

"I'm sorry, Chris, that was stupid of me I shouldn't ha-"

She cut him off by kissing him softly on his lips. Remus kissed back right away and he placed his hand on the small of her back and she placed her hands on his shoulders.

They pulled apart and Remus said, "Chris you didn't have to-"

She stopped him again by laying a more passionate kiss on him and he kissed back like no tomorrow.

She completely forgot why she was there as her lips were moving with Remus's and she was filled with complete euphoria. It was like coming up to fresh air after being trapped in an undertow. How everything felt so right was completely mind boggling. How everything felt so wrong was like a dark pit of smoke with no end. It felt so right and so wrong and Christine didn't know how to explain it other than the fact that she wanted more.

They pulled apart and placed their foreheads together as they were both breathless.

"What does this mean?" Remus asked.

Remus opened his arms and Christine moved over to nuzzle herself into his side. He wrapped his arm around her waist and she placed her head on his shoulder.

"Maybe that, um, we're dating?" Christine stumbled over the word as she knew her goal was to get Sirius to date Dana and not for her to date Remus.

"Um, okay."

They sat there awkwardly and then Remus placed his hands in her cheeks and made her stare at him.

"Christine Monroe, will you be my girlfriend?" Remus looked so sincere and ready to do anything, but he knew he would have to distance himself that night.

"Yes." She kissed him again and then they pulled apart quickly.

"So you're becoming an animagus?" Remus said. He let her place her head on his shoulder and she explained everything McGonagall said and what Sirius had said, but she left out the part where Sirius told her that Remus was a werewolf.

~**~

The night approached and Remus was sick in the hospital wing and Christine dreaded what was going to happen to him tonight. She sat there waiting for Sirius to take her out so she could start the first part of the process of becoming an animagi.

She was wearing a jumper and some jeans and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail as she waited in the common room nervously. She knew what she had to do tonight, but she wasn't sure if she was ready for the next month's torment.

The portrait hole door swung open and it was James, Sirius and Peter. Christine didn't like the fact that Remus wasn't with them, but she had to remember her new boyfriend was in capable hands.

"Hello, duckling," Sirius said. He sat down next to Christine. "Ready to start in an hour?"

"An hour? The moon is coming up now!" She just wanted to get it over with even if it wouldn't change anything.

"And I need to go keep Moony company," he replied.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Fine."

"Thanks, love," he said. "I'll see you in an hour by the black lake. Bring the stuff." He winked at her and left out the portrait hole.

Christine immediately got impatient and she went up to her dormitory where she was freaking out.

The door cracked open and Dana and Lily were standing there. They saw Christine calming herself down and the girls went straight to her bed.

"Are you okay, Chris?" Lily asked. She placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, well no." She looked at the girls and they brought her into a group hug.

Christine started crying from the stress, worry, and how her two best friends were now embracing her in a hug.

"It's okay, Chris," Dana said.

"I'm worried," she said, breathing erratically.

"About what?" Lily said. She moved her blazing red hair out of her face and stared at Christine.

"Remus is sick," was all she said. She knew she shouldn't give away too much.

"Why are you concerned with Remus? He's always sick," Lily pointed out.

"Because, um, Remus and I we, um," she couldn't come up with a way to say it out loud.

"Merlin! You two are a thing!" Dana almost screamed. It made Lily and Christine both jump out of their skins.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Lily asked.

She looked at her two friends and said, "yes."

Lily and Dana embraced Christine again in a hug, but with more of a squeal this time.

"When did it happen?" Dana asked.

"Just earlier today." Christine smirked at the memory of them kissing at the black lake.

Christine felt into the moment as it really was the first time she had talked to her friends in a month causing her to say, "I missed you guys. I'm really sorry Dana for saying those things to you and let's just say I've seen a part of Sirius that most girls don't see, but he really is nice."

"We miss you too, Chris," Lily said.

Christine was filled with glee as her friend said sorry for ever acting out of hand and Christine apologized right away. She felt to get along with the girls better due to the fact that she now knew how nice Sirius could be and how aggravating James could be.

The minutes passed as they talked away about what all happened in the last months and it was mainly Christine talking as she would tell them about her multiple detentions, pranks pulled, and hours of jokes.

Christine glanced at the clock and saw that it was now fifteen minutes to ten and she said, "Look I've got to go, I'm meeting Sirius so please don't snitch, it's important."

"Of course," Lily said. Christine was a little surprised at Lily's answer as she was always a stickler for the rules.

She gave the girls one last hug and grabbed her bag with what she needed.

She had to steady her breathing as she walked down to the edge of the black lake near the forbidden forest.

She sat on the rock that Remus and her were previously that day and she heard a howl and chills went down her spine as she knew that was Remus, howling away wherever he was. She wanted to go to him and calm him down, keep him comfort but she knew it was too dangerous, she knew the only way she could help was if she became an animagus and she had to wait a little less than a year to become one.

She fiddled with her fingers and decided to pull out the little phial that was in her bag. She had received a single mandrake leaf from Professor McGonagall and she had done the research as to how she was going to use it.

She heard a rustle in the forest and looked straight to it. She hoped that Hagrid wasn't walking around where he would catch her and hand her in. She knew that McGonagall and Dumbledore would help her out of trouble, but there was a part of her who didn't believe that and they'd make her wait till the next full moon.

She saw a big black dog emerge from the woods. They had a playful grin on its face which confused her. She remembered one thing that their divination teacher taught them and she almost screamed.

"The Grim!" She jumped off the rock and backed away slowly.

The dog looked at her and it tilted it's head sideways. It seemed like an almost human reaction.

The dog slowly changed into a human with black hair and grey eyes and Christine breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Sirius standing there.

"You should've seen the look on your face." He laughed.

"That wasn't funny." Christine shocked her head back and forth.

" _The Grim ahhh!_ " Sirius said in a girlish voice that was supposed to be Christine's voice.

"Stop!" She whacked his arm and he only smiled goofily.

"Are you ready to start?" Sirius asked.

She took a deep breath and said, "yes."

"Mark the date everyone! October 3rd 1976 is the day that Christine Monroe starts to become an animagus, taught by the wonderful Professor Sirius Black."

She rolled her eyes.

"Please don't call yourself Professor Sirius Black."

"I like it!"

"Can we get this over with?" she heaved.

"As you wish milady." Sirius winked at her. "Now take the Mandrake leaf out."

She opened the phial and took the leaf out.

"Open your mouth."

She grimaced, she didn't know if she wanted to taste it.

"And place the leaf in your mouth." He was grinning evilly.

She placed the leaf in her mouth and grimaced at the taste. It was grainy but also sweet. The taste of dirt was in her mouth and she couldn't help but want to gag as the leaf was so big so she folded it with her tongue and moved it under her tongue.

"How does it taste?" Sirius grinned masochistically.

"Like goblin piss," she said. Her voice sounded more choked back as the leaf was sitting under her tongue.

"Well, I've got to go back to Moony so enjoy and remember-"

"Don't take the leaf out, yeah I got it."

He winked at her and turned back into his dog form and he entered the woods.

She gathered the crystal phial and she made her way back up to the castle where she knew she was going to have the most uncomfortable month.


	7. Nicknames

The next week was pure torture for Christine as she kept the leaf in her mouth. She found it very annoying when Sirius would ask a question that would require a lengthy response so she'd choke back on her words as she spoke. At night the leaf would get stuck in her throat so she barely got any sleep. She tended to stay up in the common room with Sirius and Remus.

They were up on Sunday night with Christine under Remus's arm. None of the other marauders knew of what was going when Christine barely talked. They just figured she wasn't in the mood for talking.

When Sirius found out that she told Remus he got a little mad at her. He told her that she should've just said nothing and let it go, but she told him that she wished him to know for reasons Sirius figured out a few nights later.

Sirius was nothing but supportive when it came to Remus and her relationship. It was only time soon that Christine was going to bring up Dana and try to convince him to go out with her.

Christine fought every urge she could to not talk to Dana and Lily and she told them with only a few words that she had to stay close to Sirius and that meant she couldn't talk to them.

"So, Chrisy, can you describe to me again what a translator is?" Sirius asked out of pure enjoyment.

She stared at him with a deadly stare. "No," she responded.

"Come on, duckling, you know you want to," Sirius nudged her elbow.

"Leave her alone, Padfoot," Remus said kindly. He always seemed to make up excuses for her when she needed them.

"Come on, Moony, just let me bug her," Sirius begged.

"It fine," Christine said. She placed her hand on his chest and he moved into her touch. She wanted so badly to just grab him and kiss him, but she knew she needed to keep the leaf in her mouth and it still tasted quite badly.

"Fine I won't bug you." Sirius crossed his arms and Christine kept her hand on Remus's chest almost as if to cuddle.

Remus looked down at her and pulled her closer. She nuzzled her head into his chest and he left his chin on her head.

"Get a room, you two," Sirius scoffed.

They didn't seem affected by the scoff as they stayed where they were almost still. Christine longed to just have the leaf out of her mouth and every time she almost did Remus came into her mind. She knew if she kept it in she could master becoming an animagus and be with Remus once a month on a full moon.

"Chris, you need a nickname," Remus said against her head."

"Wha'?" she replied with a smile.

"Of course, Moony!" Sirius exclaimed.

Sirius pulled her arm and she sat up and she gave him a cheeky smile.

"You need a nickname," Sirius said.

"Like one of the marauders," Remus said. He took hold of her hand and gently squeezed it.

"But I'm no-"

Remus placed a finger against her lips and shushed her. "Yes you are."

Her heart skipped a beat as his finger hit his lips but she refused to kiss him for him.

"Welcome to the club." Sirius winked.

"Guys, you don' 'ave 'o."

Sirius laughed. "You sound absolutely ridiculous with that leaf in your mouth."

She felt really self conscious about her voice at the time due to the leaf. She refused to talk in class and of course that annoyed half the teachers except Professor McGonagall.

"I thought we were coming up with a nickname," Remus interrupted.

"Yes okay let's see, so we don't know what you turn into," Sirius said.

"And we don't know her patronus," Remus added.

"So that leaves us," Sirius said.

"With a nickname based off of her name."  
"But it has to be on the down low."

"So you can't tell who it is."  
"So we can't use Chrisy?"

"No."

"Krat."

"What?" Remus and Christine said together.

"I don't know."

"And that is why we don't let Padfoot make the nicknames," Remus told Christine and she snickered.

"I know," Remus said.

"What is it?" Sirius was being over eager and Christine was just looking at Remus in interest.

"Monty," he said simply.

"I don't understand," Sirius said. He shook his head in disagreement.

"Monty. Her last name is Monroe and Mon is in Monroe and the tee is just added so Monty." Remus smiled at her. "Do you like it?"

"Monney," she said as she couldn't pronounce her t's. "I love i'"

Remus scrunched his nose up and Christine did too. Remus leaned in and brushed his nose against hers and she giggled.

"I'm going to bed, night, Moony, Monty," Sirius winked at her and he went up to the boys dormitory.

"Are you tired?" Moony asked. He placed his arm around her shoulder and she placed her head on his shoulder.

She shook her head afraid of saying she was tired she didn't want to close her eyes and choke on the leaf again, but through everything she kept it in her mouth.

~**~

The next few weeks went past in a blur as Christine was desperately focused on counting down the days till she could take the leaf out of her mouth. She was waiting till November 3rd to be able to take the horrid leaf out of her mouth and start the next step of her becoming an animagus.

She woke up that morning by Dana shaking her like crazy. Remus was beside her as he got past the sexist stairs. He was keeping her company even though he felt and looked terribly sick.

The past month Remus was always around Christine, whether it was just simply holding her hand or carrying her books. It got harder for Remus as the full moon was coming up and Christine insisted on him taking a couple naps, but of course he refused to do so. Even if Remus didn't know she knew that he was a werewolf she made the excuse of him looking sick and not explaining what sickness.

"Wake up you guys!" Dana exclaimed. Dana would normally wake them up and keep a friendly attitude, but no one knew that they were still friends.

Christine tossed and wrapped her arms around Remus. She had gotten used to the leaf and adjusted to sleep with it in, but Remus refused to let her sleep alone just in case she would start choking in her sleep.

"What?" Remus asked. Remus seemed very tired.

"It's Sirius's birthday!" she squealed and ran out of the dormitory.

Christine looked around the room and saw that no one was in the room. She looked over to Remus and he was very pale and he looked terribly sick.

"You look terrible," she said. Her words were much clearer as the leaf had become a little thinner each day.

She placed a hand on Remus's cheek and he was burning up. She felt absolutely terrible as there was nothing she could do but wait till she mastered turning into an animagus. It made her feel the worst she's ever felt as she wanted to help him, but she couldn't.

"I'm okay," he insisted. He clearly thought Christine would play along with it, and she did even if she knew what was really happening to him.

"Just go see Madame Pomfrey, please?" Chris requested.

"I will later, Monty." He placed a kiss on her forehead and he unwrapped her arms from his body. He was still wearing his favourite wool sweater and the scars on his face were shining as the sunlight beamed into the room.

He got off of the bed and left Christine sitting there watching him fix his hair in the mirror and put his shoes on. He saw her looking and smirked at her.

She stood up and walked over to Remus who was looking in the mirror. She placed her hand on his shoulder. He was so tall that Christine felt like she could barely reach the top of his head, but of course she could just do it.

"You need to go to the hospital wing," she said. She placed a hand on his arm and he looked down at the arm she was holding and gave her a warm smile.

"I'm okay, Chris." He turned around and gave Christine a hug. She hugged him back and just wanted him to tell her that he was a werewolf, but of course he didn't.

"Sleep. Don't go to class, I'll take notes for you." She held his face in her hands and looked at the little bits of sweat dripping out of his hair.

"But after lunch you have Ancient Runes when I have Care of Magical Creatures." He shook his head. "Plus it's Sirius's seventeenth birthday."

"I'm sure he'll understand." She was still holding his face in her hands. "Please, just stay in, you need rest."

"Okay." He seemed to be still considering actually staying in, but he knew he needed to because of the night.

"You better go wish Sirius a happy birthday," she smiled at him.

"Okay, Monty." He smirked.

Remus left down the stairs and Christine flew onto her bed.

The constant want to pull the leaf out had gone away but nevertheless she still wanted to be able to talk freely and eat without having to worry about swallowing it.

The past month Christine's leaf had gotten just a little bit thinner as she was eating less because of the leaf. Sirius always came up with an idea to get around the leaf which always ended up with her and the leaf almost out of her mouth.

Christine went downstairs and took a shower. She dried her hair and put her robes on. She tied her hair back with a ribbon instead of a hair elastic because she was in the mood for a change.

She grabbed her bag and flung it over her shoulder and she walked down into the common room.

She went straight to the boys sitting on the couch, lecturing Remus. Christine sat right between Remus and Sirius. The boys barely moved as they knew she was going to do that. Remus put his arm around Christine and she tried not to notice Sirius rolling his eyes for some reason.

"You need to stay in, Moony," James said. His hair was as messy as always and he didn't seem to mind Christine sitting there at all.

"I'm fine," Remus replied.

"Come on, Remus, you know you should," Peter said.

Everyone in the common room had no clue what they were talking about and that's what made it so sweet for Christine because she knew, even Sirius was the one to tell her.

"It's Padfoot's birthday, I can't," Remus shook his head back and forth.

"You need rest, Moony, I don't mind," Sirius said. Christine noticed that he had placed a bunch of Honeydukes candy on the table.

"Remus will go to Madame Pomfrey don't worry," Christine interrupted. "Let's change the topic, so, Sirius, what did you get for your birthday?"

Sirius smiled at her and turned to the table. "Okay Peter got me a bunch of candy, gotta love it." He winked. "And James got me this book on animagi, don't know why he needed to give it to me." He shrugged.

Christine didn't want to know if James found out that they were studying animagi, it would be obvious because she was less talkative with the leaf in her mouth.

"Those are great! Oh and happy birthday, Sirius." Christine wrapped her arms around his neck he wrapped his arms around her waist. He tried not to stay there for too long so he pulled away after a few seconds.

"We should go down for breakfast," Christine said.

She grabbed Remus and Sirius. She put her arm through both Sirius and Remus's arm and they left the common room with James and Peter following behind them.

~**~

"No way!" Sirius exclaimed.

They walked into the Great Hall and it was covered from head to toe with banners and pictures of Sirius. Everyone who came into the Great Hall were very confused but the girls gave him gifts nonetheless.

"Happy birthday," Christine said. She looked at Sirius and gave him a wink.

"You are going to be in some deep shit for this, Chrisy," Sirius laughed.

"I know, but it was worth it."

They walked down to their table and there was a pillow for where Sirius should sit. Sirius pulled Chris down beside him and Remus sat on the other side of her.

"Is this my birthday present?" Sirius started to put a bunch of food on his plate and she rolled her eyes.

"No, your present will be on Saturday at your party in the Come and Go Room." She started to put food on her plate as well.

"Wicked."

"You know you didn't have to make him a party?" Remus said from beside her. He looked worse than before and she knew he felt worse than before.

"I did. He's seventeen, he deserves a party." She smirked at him and he slowly smiled back at him.

"Excuse me?" Christine almost jumped out her seat as she heard Dana from right beside her.

Sirius jumped too. "Sorry, yeah?" He didn't seem surprised to see Dana standing behind him.

"Happy birthday, Sirius," she said shyly. She handed him a medium sized wrapped box and he opened it right away.

He pulled out a picture frame that was made for a medium sized picture. The frame was golden and had lions printed on it. His eyes widened.

"You didn't have to," Sirius said.

"I thought you'd like it. You could put a picture of your friends in it or your girlfriend, whichever one." She smiled and skipped away.

Sirius turned to Chris and his mouth was wide open.

"Lemme see it." She held out her hand and Sirius placed it in it.

She observed the details of it and it was enchanted because there was already a picture in it. The picture showed her by the Black Lake with Sirius, Remus, Dana, and Lily ahh laughing. Remus was holding her hand and Sirius had an arm around her shoulder, while Dana was holding Sirius's hand and he was trying to get it away and Lily was standing there smiling beside Remus.

She smiled at the picture. "Look," she said.

Sirius saw it and smirked. She showed all the boys and they were all impressed. She handed the picture back to Sirius and the picture was gone for a moment.

A new picture appeared and it was Sirius in the library with Christine looking annoyed. His arm was on her chair and James was making a silly face while Remus was looking down at Sirius's arm and Peter was nibbling on some food. Everyone seemed happy because Chris wouldn't keep the annoyed look on her face, she started to smile like an idiot.

"It's like the Mirror of Erised," she said quietly.

"The what?" All of them asked together.

She laughed. "I read about it."

"Do tell us more, Monty," James said with a wink. James too had grown accustomed to her new nickname.

"Okay well, the Mirror of Erised is an old mirror that is supposed to show you the thing you desire most. It's been around for centuries, but no one has ever really seen it. Some people have."

"Have you?" Sirius asked.

"No," she said quickly, looking down at her folded hands.

Everyone went quiet and then they heard someone clear their throat behind him.

"Could I talk to you, Tinie?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This book moves so fucking fast, I'm going to re-write it eventually, I don't like the pace


	8. Leaf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is when the chapters start to get shorter, I'll tell you when they get longer.

Gilderoy was standing there with his hands at his side with a concerned look on his face.

Christine looked at Remus for a second and said, "Of course. What do you want, Gil?" She had too many nicknames for Gilderoy.

He cleared his throat again. "Alone please."

Christine hesitated for a second. "Sure."

She stood up but Sirius grabbed her arms and smirked at her. "I'll save a seat for you in Transfiguration."

"Thanks, Pads." She smiled back at him and gave Remus a quick hug. She reminded Remus to go to Madame Pomfrey and he told her he would so she happily went with Gilderoy.

They went out the corridor and Gilderoy grabbed her hand softly. She jerked her hand away quickly.

They didn't say anything till they stopped on the seventh floor and went into the Come and Go room.

In the room there was a couch and a coffee table with some teacups and some tea on it. Christine had a lump in her throat as she was always very careful when drinking and she didn't dare to drink anything around anyone other than Remus and Sirius just in case she choked.

"Sit," Gilderoy motioned. He had styled his hair differently as if he straightened it.

She sat down and Gilderoy sat next to her and started to pour some tea. She breathed in the smell and it smelt like honey, she loved that smell.

"What did you want?" Christine asked. She wasn't very sure if she wanted to know why he wanted her.

"I know what I want to do," Gilderoy said with pride. He puffed his chest out.

She laughed. "And what is that?"

"I want to travel and hunt werewolves and vampires, banish banshees, I want to do it all," he said aggressively, he was moving his arms around to make it look more important.

"You'd be brilliant at that," Chris said.

"Professor McGonagall doesn't think so, she says I should choose another job, but everyone I meet thinks I'm capable." To be fair he was not.

"No, Roy, I think you'd be amazing, seriously." She laughed at her little joke.

"Do you really?" He seemed to value her opinion and that made her feel special to him, but she really was just his only.

"Yes. You've always been one to want to defeat evil, if you know what I mean."

"I sure have." He smiled.

"Look, Roy," she said in a more sorrowful tone. "Have you thought that maybe instead of fighting magical creatures and such that just maybe you'd want to help in war going on."

"I have considered it," he said fairly. "I've thought of all the things that could happen if I joined the cause, but I simply don't see that calling me. I want to help the people who don't have magic to help themselves."  
"That's very generous, Gilderoy, but you know that the war is only going to get wor-"

"And that's why I want to help the other people," he interrupted.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, with the war going on we don't have that many British wizards being sent to places in need and because of the war all of the Ministry workers are fighting or trying to fight You-Know-Who," Gilderoy said with great consideration.

"That's bull shit." Christine couldn't think through anything but this idea of Gilderoy trying to help people when there were people in England and Scotland that could use just as much help.

"And why so?" He wasn't getting offended and that surprised Chris.

"The reason why the Ministry keeps sending more people into the war is because they're losing more and more members of the Ministry." It was only common sense. "And if you go off to Egypt to go and chase away some Blast-Ended Skrewt just to save one fucking person when there are thousands and thousands of wizards losing their lives for the entire wizarding world! I don't see the point, Lockhart!" She didn't know why she yelled, but she knew Gilderoy wasn't thinking straight.

"That's because you don't see things the ways I do!"

"Elaborate please." She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"I want to do these amazing things to help people in need and write books on it so I can help other people with it." Gilderoy looked like he was ready to become a living grenade.

"I still don't see a reason," she said calmly.

"But just look! Everything in the world is falling apart and we need to help the people in the lowest of situations!"  
"Look, Gilderoy! I can tell that you want to help people and that is amazing!" She yelled. "But there are children, mothers, and fathers being murdered for what? Blood purity? There is not one fucking reason that you should go while the war is going on! It makes no-"

She stopped. She couldn't breathe. She was choking on the leaf. She grabbed her throat and wheezed.

Gilderoy panicked and said, "What do I do?" He was clearly freaking out. His eyes were wide and he tensed up in fear.

"Siri," she said with a squeak.

Gilderoy immediately ran out of the room and Chris collapsed on the floor. She could barely breathe, she could feel her eyes getting darker and darker. The darkness consumed her as it felt like the darkest bit of black was covering her. She wanted to just let the darkness swallow her whole, to let her close her eyes and follow it.

She suddenly gasped and started coughing like crazy. She opened her eyes and saw Sirius way too close to her face.

She sat up and Sirius was holding her in his arms. She breathed in and out. The leaf wasn't gone and she took a breath of relief.

"What happened?" she said with a tone that sound drousey.

"You kind of choked on the leaf," he said. He put his hand on her face and observed her thoroughly as if she was physically hurt, maybe she was.

She felt a stinging pain on her right cheek and she winced at it as Sirius stroked his thumb over it.

"Sorry," he whispered.

She looked around the room and she saw broken teacups, but Gilderoy was nowhere to be seen. She didn't know if she should be thankful or upset, but she was just happy that Sirius was there.

"You cut your cheek," he said. He kept looking over the cut and she felt so tired.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "Will the leaf still work?" That's all she wanted to know, that's all she needed to know, she didn't care about anything else as long as the leaf was fine and she could become an animagus.

"Yes, I made sure it didn't leave your mouth, but if you kept choking on it, I would've taken it out, Monty."

"Thank goodness." She felt full of relief even more, she didn't even notice the fact that she was bleeding, she didn't care.

"Let me take you to the hospital wing," Sirius said, helping her up.

He steadied her and she fixed her balance quickly.

"I'm okay really."

"No you aren't," he said quickly.

"I can-"

"Remus will go if you go," Sirius said simply.

She froze and she knew that Remus should probably go to the hospital wing and that he would go if she was there.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes as Sirius walked with his hand on her waist just in case she fell or anything. She felt no need for him to help her walk, she just choked, it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

They made their way up to the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey was attending to a second year who seemed to be puking.

"What happened?" Madame Pomfrey said. She approached Christine and lead her to a bed.

"We can't tell you," Sirius said. He helped her onto the bed but she just rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you can," Madame Pomfrey crossed her arms and looked menacingly towards Sirius.

"I fainted and landed on some teacups," Christine said.

"See that wasn't that hard. Now Mr. Black you can return to class and I'll keep her here for a few hours."

"No I'm staying," Sirius said.

This slightly surprised Christine. She had been good friends with him for two months and he suddenly decides to stay by her side when she chokes.

"Okay."

Madame Pomfrey did some work ups and healed her wound.

"You need to eat more food, you're incredibly weak that is probably why you fainted in the first place. How much food have you been eating recently?"

Chris was about to speak but Sirius did instead, "She doesn't eat much, mostly two small plates of food a day with porridge or potatoes in them."

Christine pushed past the fact that Sirius had known exactly what she ate and how many times a day she ate.

"You should be eating a little more, it's unhealthy. Try to eat some more vegetables and get more sun because your vitamin D is low."

"Of course, I'll make sure she does," Sirius said.

She was thankful Sirius could sit there and take in the information and talk for her because her throat hurt a little bit.

"I understand you play Quidditch?"

Christine nodded.

"Well that's perfect, you should go for the Quidditch team and that will get you more air."

"She always tries out and always makes the team." Sirius smiled.

It was true, she always tried out. She loved Quidditch. She had a hidden broom that stayed at Hogwarts for the team because her parents would never allow her to have such a thing. She had made the Quidditch team every year since third year, she was a beater along with Sirius. She supposed that the only reason Sirius made the team the year before was because James was the captain, but who knew. Sirius and her were very good beaters and they tended to back each other up well and learn how to coordinate well. The Gryffindor beaters were almost impossible to stop.

"I'll be back, Mr. Gordan here needs to stop throwing up." She smiled and walked down to the young blond boy.

"Seriously you didn't have to do all the talking," Christine said. Her voice was raspy and sore, but she wanted to talk, she didn't want to wait right there and just stay quiet.

"I am Sirius," Sirius grinned.

She rolled her eyes and said, "I'm serious-"

"No I'm Sirius." The smile on his face only grew wider.

"I'm just going to stop now." She rolled her eyes. "I can take care of myself, Sirius."

"No you can't."

Christine's face turned darker and she glared at Sirius. "Yes I can."

"Then explain to me why you started choking on your leaf."

"I was yelling and it just got stuck in my throat."

"Oh really?" He teased. His deep grey eyes were giving off a look of playfulness.

The doors of the hospital wing opened and there was Remus with James and Peter. Remus looked even worse then before and he was now deathly pale with sweat running down his face. The scars on his face glimmered.

"Chris!" he sighed in relief.

He came over to her bed and held onto her hand.

"I'm fine, Remus, you didn't have to come. Even though you should've already been here." She smiled at him.

"I'm okay," he said quickly.

"I'm not dying, I got a cut because I fainted," she said.

"Why did you faint?" Remus asked. He seemed completely worried for her safety which was sweet.

She went to his ear and whispered, "I choked on the leaf. I'm okay." She laid a kiss on his cheek.

"She just needs to get more sun and food," Sirius said. He looked at her with a look that displayed totally jealousy, but Christine couldn't figure out why.

"Well why haven't you been eating, Monty?" James asked this time. He messed up his black hair and fixed his glasses.

"I just haven't been hungry," she responded.

"Can it, Monroe," James said back sharply.

She was slightly taken aback by his tone but didn't put it past him.

"I know why you haven't been eating and so does Sirius, Remus and Peter."

"Oh yeah?" Chris said. She was slightly scared that they had figured out her secret or Sirius had told them, but she knew Sirius would never do that to her.

"You miss Dana and Lily so you haven't been eating," James said coolly. He noticed her starting to tense up and he thought that only confirmed his suspicions.

Christine didn't want to think about the girls so she said, "Why did you guys come here?"

"Because you're one of us. You're a Marauder."


	9. Regulus

"I'm what?" she said stunned.

James smirked again and said, "You're one of us, welcome to the Marauders."

She couldn't believe what James was saying, she tried to keep it in, she was successful and she was so thankful for that. She was happy that the Marauders accepted her as one of their own. She sometimes even forgot why she was friends with them, because of Dana. She didn't care too much about the stupid plan because she had made good friends out of the boys and she truly enjoyed their company.

"You hang around us all the time anyway," Sirius said. He seemed to be happy about this news and that made Christine noticeably happier.

"Of course you're one of us, Monty, we love having you around," Remus said. He pulled her hand up to his mouth and he kissed her hand slightly which caused her to blush.

Sirius watched this happen and he became flustered and tried to banish the thoughts flowing through his mind.

"I could never. It's your group and I-" Christine started.

Remus layed a quick peck on her lips to silence her. Of course she wanted to pull him closer, to absorb all of him, to let their lips crash together into a flame, but she had to think about the leaf.

"Stop coming up with reasons not to be in our group, Monty, you're one of us."

Christine didn't know how she could deal with it. She was thrilled that the boys wanted her around more and that she wasn't bothering them so much. She liked that the boys liked her and didn't find her lame or not fun enough. She liked to think that she was the one who kept the boys so well in touch.

"I'm a Marauder," she said with a smile. She couldn't seem to stop smiling now because she was finally accepted by them, she no longer was just Moony's girlfriend or Padfoot's study partner, she was one of them and that brought her pure joy. Of all the days for her to be in a good mood no one thought it was going to be the day she lectured Gilderoy Lockhart on ditching the war after Hogwarts to go to some foreign country to go and banish hags. She felt happy. For the first time in what felt like months she was finally happy. Happy she had friends, happy she was accepted, happy to have a boyfriend, happy to be a Marauder. The joy filled her with the most pure substance, friendship.

"You're way too happy to be alive," James said. "Just because you're dating Moony doesn't mean that we'll treat you differently. You are going to be treated like one of the boys."

She rolled her eyes and asked, "So what happened to make me one of the boys?"

Sirius looked at her with those fierce grey eyes that ragged like a fire all the time due to his family. Everything about Sirius Black seemed like a mystery to not only her but everyone in their school. Everyone knew that Sirius had run away from home and that his parents weren't horrible people, but no one really knew why he had run away. Was he really not able to deal with his rich snobby family? Was he really just spoiled and felt like he wanted more? Was he desperate for his friends? It all seemed like a mystery. She knew that Sirius had only ever told the Marauders why he left, but Christine had hope because after all she was a Marauder as well. She knew that he would tell her in his own time, but she was so eager to know everything. He was one of her good friends and she wanted to know why he hurt when his family talked to him, why his eyes always seemed to rage with fire about his family. Why?

"You proved yourself with your coolness, Chrisy," Sirius said with a cheeky wink. The wink looked like it was entirely pure and meaningful, but now Chris was wondering what happened to him to make him look like he'd gone through so much. Every little secret felt like it was dangling right in front of her and Sirius was teasing by pulling it out of reach or over his head so she couldn't get it.

"Since when am I cool to you guys?" Chris teased. She was feeling perfectly fine but the thoughts were banging around in her head trying to escape. She held back the words asking Sirius about home. She had to keep reminding herself that she couldn't, that she had to let him tell her. It felt like physical pain not knowing. These thoughts had never crossed her head before and she wanted to know, she needed to know.

"Since third year when you turned O'Brien's hair purple," James said. He had a smile on his face and looked almost too happy. He was a jolly guy, but this big of a grin was a little bit concerning, no one seemed to notice.

"How'd you know it was me?" She seemed slightly panicked as no one was supposed to find out that was her. She had looked at a hair care book in the library and found a spell to change shampoo different colours so one could change your hair colour whenever they wanted. It was a harmless prank that lasted three days. Three days of Dana mopping about in the dormitory of her complaining about her hair colour. She was too scared to tell any of the teachers so she just waited and hoped it would turn back to her natural colour and it only turned back when Christine had changed the shampoo colour back.

"Because you always talked about it with Lily," James said with a pointed look. Again that smile gave Chris the chills for some reason because it looked so unnatural.

"Of course that's why _you_ know." Christine laughed a little at this and James started to blush a little bit. The crush was absurd and Chris just wanted him to be able to live his life without ruining Lily's day because she could never handle James bugging her constantly. She pitied Lily.

"What's that supposed to mean? That hurt." He put his hand over his heart and started to laugh.

"Mr Lupin, you look terrible. Is it the third of November already?" Madame Pomfrey said. She walked over to Remus and looked at him with her hands on her hips. She had warned him if he took longer he'd only look worse which would only cause more problems for Madame Pomfrey.

Remus looked at Madame Pomfrey and gulped. She knew he wished it wasn't the third of November, she knew he didn't want to stay in the hospital wing. She knew he wanted to spend Sirius's birthday with Sirius and his friends, but she was sure he knew he couldn't and he did not look pleased.

"Yes," Remus said shyly.

"Okay, boys, off you go and Mr Lupin take this bed, I will be over in a minute, I just need to make sure Miss Monroe is ready to go."

Remus looked at Christine and huffed a little before he walked over to the bed next to her. She could tell that he didn't want to be there or that he wanted to be anywhere but there and to be fair anyone would want to be anywhere but there. He looked so unpleasant and sick that it was needed and Chris knew he needed the care.

James and Peter went over to Remus's bed to say goodbye but Sirius stayed by Christine and looked at her with a smile.

"I put a charm on the picture frame that Dana gave me and look at what it does now." He pulled the frame out of his pocket and there was the picture that was at breakfast but with everyone looking happy and Christine not looking so annoyed. Everyone looked so happy and Christine smiled.

"It now stays this way, even if you hold it." Sirius handed her the picture frame and she held it in her hands and it stayed the exact same, everyone smiling, everyone laughing, everyone looking completely happy. She wanted that so badly, it was perfect. She would of course add Dana and Lily there, but she knew that she just wanted to be happy with her friends and it looked like she would.

***

Christine was walking down to the Slytherin common room as she didn't see who she was hoping for at dinner. She knew she needed to ask him questions and she needed answers so desperately. She didn't know him very well and Sirius would never approve of her visiting him, but she had to do it because she was so eager, she needed answers.

She walked down the dark, cold corridors of the dungeons and looked around to where the Slytherin common room would be. She hoped she was near it, but these corridors always looked the same to her and she knew she would never find him if he didn't come to her.

"Regulus, look at me, you're okay, nothing is going to happen. There is no need to worry, I'm right here," said the voice of a Slytherin girl in Regulus's year. She remembered that voice from it constantly chirping behind her during Quidditch matches and in Hogsmeade. Her name was Nadia Davenport.

She turned the corner and she saw Nadia with a hand on Regulus's arm and Regulus facing the wall with his hands in his face.

He looked so much like Sirius and Christine had noticed that when she saw him in the summer in the robe shop. He had the same chilling grey eyes, the same prestigious look in his posture as it was straight and his dark black hair had been cropped a little shorter, but it was still it's messy bunch of hair that was the same way the way she met him.

He turned around and looked at the Davenport girl and her normal tight blonde ponytail was a little loose and so made her look a little disheveled.

"Every-"

"Regulus," Davenport interrupted. Nadia moved her head in Christine's direction and Regulus snapped his head to see her standing there. He removed all emotion from his face and Nadia left right away with one more touch on his arm.

He nodded at her and then watched her hand slip from his arm. She couldn't decipher if he liked her touch or was incredibly annoyed at it. Christine thought that this boy was impossible to read. She knew he was dark and mysterious like Sirius, but he was still in the house, still eating the food, still keeping his belongings there.

He awkwardly stood there playing with his fingers till he asked, "How long have you been standing there?" He seemed worried that she was invading his personal space, like she knew his secrets. She had met him once and he was so nice to her till Sirius came in and ruined his mood. She was very interested by this boy, but never had the courage to go up to him and talk to him. She knew that Sirius and his family weren't on good terms so she knew she had to be careful for the plan to steer clear of Regulus, but she just couldn't.

"Since 'Look at me, you're okay, nothing is going to happen. There is no need to worry, I'm here.' I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation, that was rude of me." She felt really bad for catching Regulus at such a bad time. She wished she had chosen another time, but she was too curious and she had the full moon tonight.

"It is quite alright." He spoke in a very educated tone which was nothing like Sirius's careless tone. The words Regulus spoke seemed to just roll right off of his tongue and form nice beautiful words that he enunciated and he chose bigger words or words that caused people to see him as someone who knew how to talk properly.

"I have a question I wanted to ask you, but I can come back another time, it wasn't that important." She hesitated and stuttered over her words. She didn't want to catch Regulus at the wrong time, she didn't know if he was angry or emotional, but she hoped he could talk.

"Ask away." He folded his hands behind his back and looked at her in curiosity. Clearly he wanted to hear her question.

She kept debating back and forth whether or not she should ask him this. She knew Sirius wouldn't like it or the answer or where she got it from. She knew they weren't on good terms and she didn't want to mess up her relationship with Sirius, but she knew she could just ask Regulus not to tell anyone. He seemed nice enough to not tell anyone, but he was always a Slytherin, a house filled with not the greatest people but also they were very loyal, but only to purebloods, but Christine wasn't a pureblood.

She was now slightly freaking out over the fact that Regulus might refuse to answer her question because was a muggleborn, but being a muggleborn didn't seem to bother him in the robe shop as he had a friendly conversation with him till once again Sirius wrecked it. She was told that blood purity was a sensitive topic to the Black's and Sirius had said previously that Regulus would never use slander or be rude to anyone less than a pureblood. That was a little promising.

"I just wanted to know why Sirius ran away," she stated. She was scared of a look that she hoped Regulus wouldn't do, to be fair so was slightly terrified that he would just pull out his wand and start hexing her till no tomorrow.

Regulus opened his mouth to speak but Christine interrupted quickly.

"That's only if you feel comfortable answering of course."

"I think I am capable of responding to your question."

She said nothing and let him start talking.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but Sirius and I grew up in a house full of traditions and beliefs. One of the most steadfast beliefs in the House of Black was that blood purity is the most important thing. We were raised to sustain the pureblood line even if it meant we would marry our cousin."

"That's disgusting," Christine said. She grimaced at the thought of having to have sex with your cousin and give birth to a child. They weren't free to love and she knew right away that it shouldn't matter what type of blood you had, it wouldn't matter as long as you were happy.

"It really is. My mother is my second cousin once removed."

She didn't say anything because she felt slightly sick at that remark. What person in their right mind would ever do that to their children, make them live day to day being taught that they are the best and no one else matters and that you have to marry your cousin. It was disgusting.

"Now Sirius was unhappy with the upbringing and never wanted to believe that purebloods were superior and so he never did. He kept those thoughts to only me and him as we grew up.

"Growing up in our household was not fun. There was always a constant thirst for approval of our parents and so we were put against each other. We both had the same morals and thoughts, but they put us against each other. We would have duels in the drawing room and I would always strike him down because my parents would get annoyed and use curses on him."

"What type of sick parent does that to their children?" Christine asked with the most disbelieving face. She hated Sirius and Regulus's parents and she hadn't even met them and she already hated them to the bone.

"Mine." He continued without hesitation. "Now about a month after coming home from school I had just been told I would get punishment because I was late for breakfast and Sirius must have done something the day before or early morning to provoke mother or father. So after breakfast we both made our way to the drawing room and he stunned me. My parents didn't like how I flew against the wall so my father used the cruciatus curse and then I used a dark spell to hurt my brother and I got my fathers approval. I was content, but Sirius was bleeding on the floor half dead."

Regulus's were clearly filled with guilt and Christine felt bad for him. She knew he had wished more than anything not to harm his brother but he did anyways and it almost killed him.

"I healed him of course, but it was the last straw for him. He screamed at my father and mother and left. He said goodbye and wished I would join him, but that was it, he said nothing else. As if he didn't care for me."


	10. Breathing Again

Christine made her way down to the black lake where Sirius and her would be meeting. They would start phase two of their animagus plan and Christine was so desperate to be able to talk again. Not only talk but kiss Remus a little more, a little harder. She would be relieved of the constant fear of choking on her leaf, but that meant that Remus wouldn't stay beside her as she slept to make sure she didn't choke. She wanted Remus to stay next to her, but she understood that he needed his space and without the leaf in her mouth it would be easier for her to tell Remus that audibly.

It was muddy and the sun had gone down earlier with Remus still in the hospital waiting for the moon to come up so he could go hide and become a werewolf for a night.

Christine had some questions about her new knowledge of Sirius's past and she wanted to ask him about it. She was glad Regulus decided to tell her and be nice to her at least. She knew more about him even though she felt slightly sneaky and bad by her going behind Sirius's back and asking the brother he had run away from that had denied to join him to get away from his horrible family.

She was very confused by Regulus. He was an entirely different person from Sirius and he seemed to know a little more and was a little more smarter and quick witted. She had almost through that Sirius's brother would be a lot more like Sirius, but he wasn't.

The way Regulus talked about his family seemed almost saddening to watch. His eyes would flutter away from hers as he would talk to her like he was dreading the entire conversation. She felt bad initially for having to make Regulus go through the flashbacks of him hurting his brother. She could just see the pain on his face.

She got down to the lake and sat on a rock which just so happened to be the very rock where she had her first kiss.

She pondered the memories of that kiss and remembering Remus getting awkward and opening up so quickly. It was so odd because whenever a girl seemed interested in him he would always just let her down nicely but Remus didn't. He smiled and was nervous and right away asked her to be her girlfriend without even thinking and she said yes because she really liked Remus.

"Don't think too hard, Chrisy," Sirius said from behind her.

She jumped and looked at Sirius who was smirking evilly at her.

"Sorry, you scared me."

"Ah, don't worry, Chrisy, I scare everyone."

"Why is that oddly true?"

He smiled his handsome smile and Chris smiled right back at him. He seemed so beautiful under the full moon. It was odd to see, but he really was a handsome boy, anyone could see that.

He looked so much like Regulus with the same dark hair, and same grey eyes, and the same facial expressions. Of course Sirius was more careless with his facial expressions and Regulus seemed to control his, but when Christine was talking to Regulus she couldn't help but notice the similarities between the two boys.

"Do you remember what's next?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. I get to take this damn leaf out of my mouth, add a hair to it, and a silver teaspoon from a place no human or sunlight has ever touched for a full seven days."

"After that?"

"I have to add the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth. And then I have to isolate it in a dark place till the next electrical storm. I know what I'm doing, Sirius."

"Just making sure."

"Well there is no need to make sure."

"It doesn't matter, Monty. Now come with me, we need that place where no sun or human has ever touched."

He grabbed her hand and started to drag her towards the forbidden forest. The dark ominous trees scared Christine a little bit, but she knew that if she were to get hurt Sirius would protect her. Plus Remus was somewhere other than the forest.

They were walking with what felt like forever due to lack of people watching out where they're walking just in case future animagi come by.

"What was it like at your house?" Christine asked.

She knew that she needed to ask him to see his point of view and to see why he really left and if Regulus had been lying. This question was mainly to see if Regulus was honest to her.

"Not fun. Why do you ask?" He barely seemed fazed by her question, like he was expecting it.

"Because I heard you ran away."

"Did Moony tell you that?"

"It doesn't matter who did. I just want to know what your life at home was like."

"First you need to understand who my parents are. They are pureblood maniacs who only see the good in purebloods like themselves. They're one of those families who call people a you-know-what and I just found it disgusting. All my life I was raised to know everything about purebloods and I didn't think of it much. My first real friend was a pureblood and my parents were already thoroughly disgusted by me being sorted into Gryffindor that having my best friend being a pureblood didn't affect them in the way I wanted them to."

"That friend was James."

"Yeah. So when my parents were still displeased about the whole Gryffindor situation I gave it all up. All of it. The whole Black persona and I changed. I became friends with Remus and Pete and when they found out they were so fucking mad. It was fun to watch if I'm telling the truth."

"You laughed because they were mad? I would've cowered in the corner."

"So you just admitted that you're a coward?" He asked in confusion.

She felt that she was a little bit of a coward for not being able to stick up for herself at her parents. They never really favoured Christine and whenever they would yell at her she would cower. Her home life was hard and she felt like she was a coward, that would make a lot of sense.

"I'm not a coward."

"Okay then tell me about your family."

"After you finish your story."

"Party pooper."

"You know me too well."

Sirius thought for a minute and then continued.

"After I got sorted into Gryffindor and became friends with the boys my parents punished me more. I had to be careful about how I was sending letters to them in the summer and sometimes I would go weeks without writing to them because I couldn't deal with the punishments. It was horrible. Believe me. Every time my family caught me doing anything that would relate to my friends or Gryffindor I would be punished. Normally it was just the cruciatus curse, but sometimes they made me duel Regulus. I never wanted to hurt my brother and I never have in a duel, but every time I tried to, they would hurt me. There was no escaping it. Regulus was untouchable and even when they made him fight me he would always win because if he didn't win or got hurt they would get mad because their golden boy is injured."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah and before you ask I left because my family treated me like shit and they are raging lunatics and I hate them so yeah."

"Do you hate your brother?"

He stopped for a second clearly contemplating if he did. Christine didn't know if she wanted to know if he hated his brother. She knew he didn't of course but a part of her wasn't so sure about that. She could tell that he didn't know how to treat his brother because his brother clearly hurt him.

"I-I don't know."

It looked like it hurt him to think of his past and Chris felt slightly bad for bringing it up, but she just couldn't have Regulus's side of the story, she needed the whole thing.

"What about your family?" Sirius cleared his throat and stepped over a log.

"Well I'm a muggleborn so obviously I didn't have to grow up with wizarding politics, but I did deal with a good amount of criticism."

"Tell me about it."

"Okay, well, my parents first of all are terrified of the wizarding world and that doesn't help anything. But they aren't very encouraging when it comes to my schooling. I take high school classes because my family doesn't believe that Hogwarts can get me a job and I'm pretty sure they don't even believe Hogwarts is a real school."

"That's quite dumb because Hogwarts can get you a better job than any muggle schooling can get you."

"I keep telling them that, but they don't listen. I spend my summers doing chemistry, math, and history. It's torture."

"What's chemistry and math?"

"Chemistry is basically potions, but all of them are bad for your body in one way or another and math is just arithmancy."

"All summer?"  
"All summer."

"I feel bad for you."

"Finally someone pities me."

"Okay so why are your parents so scared of our world."  
"Probably because they don't know anything about it. Maybe it's because they don't know what we're all capable of. They hated seeing me leave the first time. They didn't even go through the barrier, it was bad enough that they were disapproving of the school, but they said goodbye and just left so I had to find out how to get onto the platform without them."

"Were they reluctant to send you?"

"Of course they were. When Professor McGonagall came to our house to tell them that I was a witch they didn't believe her and she tried her hardest to convince them, but they didn't budge. They said they wouldn't send me to some 'freak' school and threatened to call the police on McGonagall so McGonagall got Dumbledore and he had to convince them. Dumbledore took a whole week to convince them after several nights of talking about it and finally they let him take me. We went to Diagon Alley, got my stuff and left the next day for Hogwarts."

"Dumbeldore, wow, you must've been a special case."

"I wasn't. I'm just a random girl from London."

"Sure. Did Dumbledore go to Lily's house when she was accepted into Hogwarts?"

"No, but that's different."

It was true. Lily didn't get Dumbledore to go to her house because her parents let her go the first time. They were thrilled really that Lily was a witch but her sister wasn't the same at all, she held a grudge against Lily.

They dropped their conversation as they approached a part of the forest that had moonlight streaming in. There was a small pond and some sort of forcefield around the area. She guessed that this is where the next step started.

"Get the vial out," Sirius said.

Christine reached into her bag and pulled out her crystal vial. She looked at it and couldn't wait to pull the moist leaf out of her mouth. She had waited for this day and it was finally here. She would be free to breathe and not worry about choking, but there was something she couldn't wait to do.

She couldn't wait to see Remus again and kiss him more than she had ever in the past month. She had been dating him for a while and she so badly longed for a kiss longer than half a second which was always a boring peck on the lips.

"How did you find this place?" Chris asked.

"Minnie helped. Apparently centaurs like it when the teachers are creating an animagus to help the werewolf problem."

That made a lot of sense seeing as Sirius wasn't the smartest person on the planet.

"Of course Minnie did it."

"You underestimate my abilities."

"Hell yeah I do."

The moon broke through the trees and you could just see it reflecting off of the lake. It was pure and beautiful. Everything about it seemed to cause ease in the yearning for the leaf to be removed. She just wanted to stand there talking to Sirius for forever.

"Ready?" he said with a smirk on his face.

"More than ever."

"Go ahead."

He watched as she slowly pulled the leaf out of her mouth and placed it into the vial. A hair was plucked from her hair and she added it to the vial. Sirius had his small spoon and added some dew left over on the ground.

Christine felt so happy to have the leaf out of her mouth. It felt so nice to be able to move her tongue and not worry about.

"Lions lick lots of lollipops," Christine said to test her tongue.

Sirius gave her a cheeky smile and she felt so happy.


	11. Fast Friends

The next morning Christine made her way to the Hospital Wing right away. She was worried about all of the Marauders. She wanted to be able to help them. She didn't want them to get hurt, but she knew that working with a werewolf was a risky business, but nothing she couldn't handle.

Once she walked in Madam Pomfrey told her to be quiet, but instead, she searched the beds.

She saw Remus and Sirius, both unconscious. She was immediately filled with worry as she saw them lying there. She wanted to know what happened and if they were going to be okay. She knew Remus would play off the fact that he was just very sick and Sirius had been in a duel with Snape or something like that. She had known Remus well enough to assume that, but she was worried for them. She had a huge party planned for the weekend and she needed them to be able to walk because the party was for Sirius.

She went up to Sirius and tried not to look as stressed out as she felt. She didn't know she could've felt so much for these boys.

"Sirius, what happened?" She asked him.

He slowly opened his eyes and gave her a light smile. She could see the happiness in his eyes. He looked truly happy to see Christine standing over him, worrying.

"Nothing I can't handle," he replied. He tried to sit up and he clutched his abdomen. He grunted and Chris moved her hands forward to help him, but he finished sitting up on his own.

She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a serious look. She needed to convince him to speak to her, to tell her the truth, she needed to know how to help.

He huffed a little and looked at Remus who was fast asleep in some pajamas that Madam Pomfrey provided.

"It's just a scratch," he said. He was still clutching his stomach and he looked like he was in pain. This made Chris feel bad because she wasn't a healer, she was just good at Ancient Runes, nothing else.

"Sirius, you have to tell how you got it."

"I do not."

"Yes, you do. And if you don't _I'll_ ask James. And wait James doesn't know that I know about Remus, right?" She had an evil grin on her face as she teased Sirius.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, I would, and James would tell me, so would you rather tell me yourself or would you like me to ask James, Black?" She was being very serious as she asked Sirius this. She knew he would crack.

He rolled his eyes and gave a grunt.

"Time is ticking." She pointed to her hand like there was a watch there.

"Fine," Sirius said. He didn't seem too happy about the ordeal, but Chris didn't care. She needs to know how to help if need be. What if Sirius just dropped dead, she need to know where he was injured.

"It was near the end and I only had gotten a few scratches from Remus. Of course he started changing back and it's painful for him." The look on his face was distressed and he looked uncomfortable. He also looked pained to look back, like the memory hurt him too. "I was watching him shiver and he started to throw his arms everywhere. He scratched me."

She stopped for a second, thinking over everything that Sirius said. Remus had hurt Sirius and she knew that Sirius felt horrible, who couldn't. Remus was already wairy of him hurting his friends or doing anything to offended anyone. He was a sweet boy and Christine knew that Remus felt terrible and so did Sirius because Remus hurting Sirius would hurt Remus more than Sirius was physically hurt so it pained him to think of his friend in more distress, and pain then him because of a condition he can't control.

"You're going to be fine right?" Christine asked. She didn't know if a werewolf scratch would hurt Sirius, but he was probably in his animagus form, so it shouldn't hurt him. Should it?

"I'm fine, I'll be out of here around dinner. Remus will be out sooner." Sirius looked towards Remus's sleeping body. "Go talk to him, he'd like that." He gave her a little smile and it didn't seem sincere, it almost seemed broken. . . lost.

Christine nodded and looked towards Remus. He looked tense and not healthy at all, he looked sick.

She walked towards him and sat on the chair that was next to his bed. She grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze.

His eyes slowly fluttered open and he saw Christine look down at him with a smile. He smiled back lightly, but the smile slowly faded and his eyes were full of regret. She wanted to tell him that everything would be fine and that she didn't care that he was a werewolf, but he was so sure not to even bring the subject around, like it was cursed.

"Hey, Remus," Christine said sweetly. She watched him with adoring eyes and a real smile broke across his face, it was small but there nonetheless.

"Hey, Monty," he responded.

She brushed back the hair from his forehead. He looked terrible.

"How are you feeling, darling?" She kept her smile on her face as she kept brushing the hair from his face, the adoring eyes still on the sandy haired boy.

"Much better now that you're here." He laughed lightly than grimaced. He seemed to turn paler. She just wanted him to tell her about his furry little problem.

"I heard you had a rough night." She kept her voice nice and level as she looked at the boy she liked so much.

"Nothing I can't handle." He shrugged.

"The funny thing is, Sirius said the same thing and now he's grunting and groaning in his bed."

"Are you sure there's just not a girl in there with him?" He laughed.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Are you serious?"

"No, I'm Sirius," Sirius called from the other bed, pulling the curtain away.

He had pulled his hair back into a bun and was sitting there with an smirk on his face. He looked so very happy and it made Christine smile.

"Shut it, Black," she joked.

"Back to last names are we, Monroe?"

"Yeah and if you keep interrupting you'll just be ignored by me again." She gave a half hearted smile and he quickly laughed and closed the curtain behind him.

She turned back to Remus and kept the smile on her face.

"Look, I've got to go. The steps last night were perfect and everything is fine, I'm running out tonight to add more dew, I'm bringing James."

"Good because the forest it not safe."

She pinched his cheek, scrunched up her nose and said, "I knew you'd say that, so that's why I'm bringing James."

"Okay. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

She bent down and gave him a kiss. He right away grabbed the back of her head and pulled her closer to him. She found him kissing her very passionately as their lips moved in sync. She needed to stop, but she also loved this kiss. This kiss was what she was waiting for ever since she put that leaf in her mouth.

She gave him and let her kiss her for a minute and tried not to let him pull her on top of him while they did things.

She pulled away and Remus was smiling. She smiled back at him, gave him a quick kiss on lips and left out the door.

Remus watched her go as she looked over her shoulder and winked at him. She waved to Sirius and left out of the door.

***

Christine sat in the common room playing with her fingers, waiting for James to come down into the common room with Sirius. She wasn't planning on bringing Sirius because he was still a little sore from the night before and she didn't want to push him. She didn't want him to get hurt.

She was getting impatient so she marched up the stairs to the boys dormitory and stood outside the door that said ' _Sixth Years_ '. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

She almost ran out of the room as she saw Sirius parading around in his underwear, looking so stupid. She couldn't run, this was too funny.

He didn't seem to notice her and neither did Peter but James did and the smirk on the boy's face widened as he held in a fit of laughter.

Sirius was fairly fit. He had almost scuplted abs. He had a large scar across his stomach that Christine was sure Madam Pomfrey couldn't get rid of or he didn't want it gone. He looked a little skinny with his clothes on but without them on she saw how fit he was. Quidditch payed off very much. She found herself staring at him more than she should as she watched him start singing a song from the radio that was playing a song by the weird sisters.

The music stopped and Sirius turned around and looked very embarrassed. He quickly dove under the sheets of Remus's bed and gave a weak, embarrassed smile.

"I see I walked in on the wrong time," Christine laughed.

"Indeed you did," James said. He was still laughing at the fact that Sirius was super embarrassed. He didn't keep his eyes off her, like he was waiting for her to just leave so he can continue his shenanigans. "Now, what do you want, Monty?"

She felt nervous again. She looked from the handsome Sirius to the rat like boy to the boy with glasses. She didn't know if she was ready to tell James about her adventures and how she's becoming an animagus, but she needed to tell him to continue with filling the vial with dew.

"C-could I talk to you, James?" She asked.

James looked at the two boys and then at Christine in confusion. He watched her slightly scared and right away understood. He knew it was important and he knew that she didn't want to talk to the other two boys in the room, even though one of them already knew.

"Out you two," James demanded in a nice tone. It was odd how he did that.

"I'm almost naked," Sirius said. He looked at James and clearly his eyes demanded him to stay, but James only made a face telling him that he should leave. Sirius responded with another face that Christine couldn't decern. James then crossed his arms and Sirius huffed lightly.

"Take these at least." James threw a pair of trousers and a shirt towards him.

Sirius slowly crawled out of Remus's bed and put the trousers on and the shirt. His hair was messy and he didn't seem to mind as he left with Peter following him, nibbling at a packet of crisps.

The door closed behind them and James sat down on one of the beds, she assumed that it was his.

She stood there quietly observing the boys room. It was messy for sure and the only clean parts of the room were where Remus slept and where the fifth person in their dorm slept. She felt bad for him because he had to deal with the Marauders.

"So, what did you need?" James asked. He was ruffled his hair a little bit and fixed his glasses.

"Well, I need you to do something with me." She was sure her voice sounded so stupid and that it sounded like she wanted to rob a bank or something like that.

"And that thing is?" Clearly James was dumb enough not to question her tone.

"Well over the past month I've been-" He interupped her.

"Starting to become an animagus."

Her mouth almost dropped as he said that. How did he know? How would he figure it out? She was always so careful around everyone except Remus and Sirius, everyone.

"How did you know?" She asked. She wanted to know if he was stalking her or something, for Lily of course.

"Because you haven't been able to talk for the last month and Sirius snuck out while we were- uh somewhere." She knew he almost let it slip.

"It's okay, I know."

"Know what?" He seemed to be a little flustered by her statement.

"That Remus is a werewolf." She looked at the ground and felt a little ashamed. She knew if she admitted who told her that they would be told to keep their mouth shut, she needed to. So she came up with the perfect idea.

"Who told you?"

"I figured it out. He looked so very sick yesterday and he did the day him and I- you know became a thing. Anyways I put the pieces together and Sirius in the hospital wing only confirmed it."

She had just lied to James Potter. The golden boy. The one that would of course be nice to her. The one that had welcomed her to the Marauders.

"You're smart."

"And so are you."

They looked at each other for a minute. They were clearly reading each other's expressions. Everything seemed normal, but they were studying each other like crazy.

"And why did you want me?" He broke the silence but not the eye contact.

"Because I need someone to come to the forest with me to add dew to my vial."

"Can't you go by yourself?"

"Would Remus like that?"

James thought for a second and then said, "No."

"So are you coming or not?"

He folded his arms and looked at her, a smile breaking across his face.

"Why would I not?"

And that was the start of a great friendship between James and Christine.


	12. Party

The decorations were all up as Christine walked into the come and go room. She was so thankful that it all showed up on its own because she didn't know if she could put up the sign that said, _Happy Birthday Sirius._ She loved the room as there was a table with some cups on there to hold drinks and there were couches, chairs, tables, and lights strung around the room. It was very nice and the perfect setting for Sirius.

Christine had worn her nicest dress. It hugged her curves, was short, and black. It had spaghetti straps and had a lovely velvet kind of fabric on it. She had gotten it from a muggle shop before she left so she could have a new party dress for the few parties that took place at the school.

She looked at the clock on the wall and it was around eight so people should be arriving soon. She waited on a chair and looked in the corner at the gift she had for him, starting a pile of presents that would shortly appear there.

She sat with her legs crossed and watched as slowly some kids came in. They place their presents by hers and started to standing awkwardly in corners as the quiet music played in the background. 

Lily and Dana came in and saw Christine. She smiled and waved for them to come. She was fine around them because the boys wouldn't be there for a while so she had time to at least talk to her friends.

"Do you like the dress?" Chris asked Dana. She had let her borrow one of her blue floral-like dresses.

"I love it!" Dana squealed.

"So you finally decided to throw a party for Sirius," Lily stated. Her hair was pulled up to a loose messy bun and she was wearing just jeans and a nice shirt. She never liked to dress up if she had to so she just chilled in her jeans when she could.

"I did and I'm pretty happy at how it turned out," Chris replied.

"It's nice."

"Nice? It's beautiful! Good job, Chris!" Dana exclaimed.

Christine laughed as the girls left to go place their gifts in the corner. She knew that Dana got him another gift and Lily probably just put her name on Dana's because she could.

Christine started to walk around the room, saying hi to people as she passed. She didn't really care for the people there but she knew that Sirius was somehow connected to them. She didn't really know how many people Sirius knew or really talked to so she basically invited everyone that was fourth year and up. He sure talked to a lot of people when they walked the halls and Christine would normally just stand there awkwardly and wait for Remus to come and take her away to where they could talk about books that he was reading and the whole sort of things Remus was interested in.

She was never one to be purely consumed by academics. She was never good at her subjects. She was only fairly good at Transfiguration and Ancient Runes. She did want to become a Translator. So she found herself not knowing a lot of things that Remus told her about, she just liked listening to Remus speak for a very long time. She liked it when he would say something and laugh quietly to himself about the most random things that Christine never understood. She liked it when he would go on for hours about some random book he was reading and how the character development was absolutely terrible. She didn't care as long as she could hear his voice somewhere in there.

When Sirius joined them she would tend to goof off with Sirius and she normally would forget that Remus was telling them something as he would start scribbling on his parchment. They would talk about the most stupid things till Christine would roll her eyes and give some attention to her boyfriend who would by that time be too engrossed in schoolwork to actually give her some attention. She would then turn her attention back to Sirius who would tell her another joke and she'd find herself listening to everything Sirius said. She didn't care about the tone of his voice, but she actually cared about the words he was saying, even if half the time it was about some stupid prank he wanted to pull.

That was the difference between her boyfriend and her friend. She loved to listen to her boyfriend's voice for hours and didn't listen half the time but heard his voice go to different pitches, sounds and she would inspect his every noise that came out of his mouth. 

With her friend, she would listen to what he was saying and take in the information. She wouldn't process what way he was saying the words, she didn't make sure his eyes were conveying the right emotions. She made fun of him and poked at the fact that he really didn't know how to do half the things he said. 

The door flung open and everyone looked over at the group of boys walking in, Sirius leading the pack. 

They were all well dressed as Remus was wearing his nice sweater, James was wearing a button-up shirt, Peter wasn't well dressed but he was wearing some jeans and a hoodie, and Sirius was rocking a pair of dress pants and a white shirt. It was a careless look but she didn't care.

Sirius scanned the room and then his eyes landed on Christine. He smiled and made his way over to her. He pulled her into a hug. He squeezed her tight and she felt like she was suffocating.

"Let. Go. Sirius," she said breathlessly.

Sirius let go of her and let the grin linger on his face. 

"You did this all for me?"

"Of course I did," Christine replied. "It is your seventeenth birthday, you deserve a little party."

"Well, birth week technically because I was not born on this day."

"Smartass."

"You love me."

Christine rolled her eyes and went up to Remus who she kissed very passionately to make Sirius annoyed.

Sirius always found himself uncomfortable every time Christine and Remus showed affection physically. She liked to tease him by kissing Remus hard and Remus would always pull her away before they could get too physical.

"Get a room," James chimed in.

Christine pulled away from Remus and left her hands tangled in his hair. "I like your sweater. Is it new?"

"I like your dress."

Christine blushed and looked down at her shoes. 

Sirius came up to Christine and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Now you two are so cute, but this is my party so can we party?"

Christine let her hands fall to her side and she grabbed Remus's hand before leading Sirius over to the small drink table. It had some muggle drinks on it and a lot of fire whiskey. She smiled as she poured herself a cup of fire whiskey and so did James and Sirius. 

She smiled as she watched the boys start to dance after a couple of cups of fire whiskey. They were swaying to the beat while Christine sat from the side with adoring eyes following the boys that were so very nice to her. 

Sirius walked over to Christine and said, "Hey, Monty, can I open the gift you gave me?" He smirked at her.

She smiled back and left Remus who sat on a couch reading a book while also trying to listen to what Peter was telling him about his crush who was standing across the room talking to Gilderoy.

"Of course you can."

She walked over to the pile of gifts and gave him her lump of a present that she got him. She had a smile on her face as she gave him the present and he opened it recklessly. The biggest smile burst across his face as he pulled out a new leather jacket. It was black just like he liked it and it had some patches on it that Christine thought he would like. She got it from her parents one morning and hid it in her room, but she really loved the jacket so she was sure that Sirius would like it as well.

He put it on right away and pulled Chris into a hug. He squeezed her hard but she didn't care as she welcomed his embrace and wrapped her arms around the boy.

She could tell that he was so thankful for the gift that she had gotten him and she was so happy he liked it. If he didn't she didn't know how she would react. She would of course be embarrassed because he didn't like the gift, but he would probably make fun of her if she did.

"Thank you, Chrisy," he whispered into her ear.

"You're welcome." 

She pulled out of the hug and James was admiring the jacket that Christine had given him. He looked like he wanted one too. Christine watched as Sirius muttered things to James and they would laugh and admire the jacket.

"Damn, Padfoot, you are so lucky," James said. "Monroe, you need to get me something even better for my birthday."

"No, she doesn't, Prongs, because you see I'm her favorite so she's going of course going to put the most thought into my gift," Sirius smirked and put an arm playfully around her shoulder.

"I don't have favorites," Christine said with an eye roll.

"Sure you don't," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Fine, if I pick favorites then my favorite would be Remus."

"That's not fair," Sirius said.

"Yeah he's your boyfriend," James said.

"Well, you asked me to pick so I did. And stop complaining boys because that's just going to make everything worse."

"Our strategy is," Sirius said, "To annoy you _so_ much that you love us too much to choose a favorite."

"And how is annoying me going to do anything on your part?"

James decided to answer. "Because we won't leave you alone so you will miss out on our company so you will want our company and then you will choose who annoys you the most."

"You are probably the most thick-headed boys I have ever met. And if you'll excuse me, I would like to talk to Gilderoy."

"Lockhart is a party pooper," Sirius complained.

"And so are you so please just let me talk to my friend."

She left the boys behind and went up to the blond-haired boy who was standing alone in the corner, drinking his fire whiskey. He didn't seem too happy and Christine pitied him slightly because he had an outgoing personality and he was open to talking to almost anyone, but he would always end up talking about himself and how great he was. Gilderoy was good but he had always ended up being a little full of himself.

"Hey, Gilly," Christine said with a smile.

Gilderoy looked up from his drink and gave Christine smile. He slightly looked her up and down. He groaned as he leaned his head against the wall.

"What's wrong, Lockhart?" Christine asked. She stood beside him and pulled the cup out of his hands and took a drink out of it.

"I feel terrible for making you choke still and you look very nice," he said with a little smirk.

"It's okay, Roy, I'm fine and I'm still breathing, aren't I?"

"I suppose."

"See now we can be happy and keep a smile on our faces."

They stood there quietly for a second as they took turns drinking out of Gilderoy's cup.

"I feel so single," Gilderoy huffed.

"Why is that?"

"Because you're with Lupin, the rest of my so-called "friends" all have boyfriends or girlfriends, oh and Black sucking the face of O'Brien in the corner isn't helping."

Christine froze. 

"Who's sucking whose face?"

"Sirius Black and Dana O'Brien." His eyes trailed to the corner where Christine could see the leather jacket and the floral dress. 

Her eyes lingered there as she watched Sirius push Dana against the wall and saw Dana giggle like crazy. His hand went to her throat as he kissed up and down Dana's neck and onto her bare shoulder where she would start giggling and pulling Sirius up to start kissing her again.

Christine watched. She watched and dozens of emotions flooded her as she saw Sirius and Dana make out. Was it jealously? No, she had a boyfriend, she knew it wasn't jealous. But maybe it was. There was a small part of her that really like Sirius and wanted him to hold her neck and kiss her neck. She used to hate the boy, but now she liked him and more then she should really like him. But there was a part of her that wanted to be in Dana's position, totally dominated by Sirius. 

She quickly dropped the cup and left out of the room while trying to control the thoughts that were swirling about in her head. Why was she feeling this way? She couldn't. The plan was to get Dana and Sirius together and they looked pretty together at the party. Her plan was successful. She got Dana and Sirius together, but clearly, it would've happened either way. 

That was why she became friends with the Marauders. That was why she spent so much time with Sirius.

She didn't want to think about it. She couldn't. She was supposed to get Dana and him together and now that they were she would be able to go on her own with Lily and Dana as her friends again. She didn't want to think of that, she couldn't.

"Christine!"


	13. New Feelings

"Christine!" Lily called.

Christine turned back and saw Lily. She crashed into the wall and just sat there. 

She tried to hold in her tears. She was biting her lip so hard that she felt like I may bleed.

She didn't like these feelings that she was feeling. She didn't like imagining herself in Dana's place. After all, Sirius and her were just _friends_ and nothing more than that. The thought of her wanting to be in Dana's place struck a nerve in her brain. She didn't know if she liked feeling like she wanted Sirius' lips trailing down her neck and on her jaw.

"Christine!" Lily said one more time before plopping down beside me and trying to wrap her arms around her friend. Chris gave in and let herself fall into Lily's arm.

"What's wrong?" she asked her.

Christine let out a hefty sigh before answering.

"Nothing."

Lily moved back to get a little look at Christine who looked sulky. She looked completely out of it. She had just thrown a party and was completely happy and the next second she was looking completely down and alone. 

"Something is wrong!"

Lily had always been one to go and comfort Christine. Christine felt fairly close to Lily as she was able to relate to her a little bit. Just the part about being muggleborn. Lily was the only one that Christine could talk to during the summer. She would tell Christine all about how annoying her sister was and how jealous she was of her. Christine would never reply with what was going on with her family because either they were treating her like shit or they were just ignoring her. 

"Life at home is hard," was all Christine said.

Her life at home was hard. With her parents being in constant fear of her never got sleep. Her parents were strict and never let her out of their sight other than when she would to summer school. They were scared of her. Christine never wanted her parents to be scared of her and every time she would bring up anything about school they would laugh and change the subject as soon as they could. They didn't care if Christine got into detention. They didn't care whether she was failing Potions or not. They barely cared about her at all.

"When is it not? No offense, Chris, but your family absolutely sucks."

"I know," she chuckled. "Imagine living with them."

"I pity you," Lily said with a smile gleaming across her face.

She watched her friend's kind face and only missed it even more.

Lily's face broke into a smile quickly and she started to say, "We can be friends again!"

"What?" Christine shook her head quickly back and forth trying to understand what she meant. They never stopped being friends.

"I mean, we can hang out again. I hope the boys haven't run you down too much."

Christine gulped. She opened her mouth a few times to say something but nothing came out.

"Look, I saw Dana and Sirius making out _so_ that means they're together and that means we can do whatever the hell we want and become friends again."

"T-that doesn't they're together. T-they probably had just a little too much fire whiskey."

"Shove off, Chris. I want to hand out with you. And maybe we'll have some more friend time if Sirius and Dana become a thing."

Christine freezer and stood up right away.

"Chris?"

"I-I'm sorry, I'm going to get some fresh air. Please don't follow me."

She moved her gaze down to her feet and looked up a little to see Lily smile and nod. She walked away and back into the room of requirement.

Christine sighed in relief as she made her way to a secret passageway that would get her out of the castle without getting caught by Filch.

She found herself by the Black Lake and sitting atop the rock where Remus and her first kissed.

She didn't know if she should be sitting on the rock if she was having so many fantasies about Sirius. She knew she shouldn't because it's the very place where she kissed her boyfriend. Where they became boyfriend and girlfriend. It felt wrong to sit there after wishing her lips were on another boy's body. But she couldn't get off the rock, it was almost like she was meant to be there. 

She didn't like the plan. She didn't want to go back to spending every waking hour with the two girls that used to be her best friends. _Used to be._ Those words sat in her head for a while as she already thought that her, Lily, and Dana _used_ to be best friends. They didn't seem like her friends anymore because she was so convinced to become friends with the Marauders. She wanted to be friends with the Marauders now and if she talked to herself two months ago she was sure that she would say that she was crazy and that she never became very close to them. Her past self would loathe her. She would've let her past self down by being friends with the Marauders and leaving Dana and Lily.

But Dana and Lily wanted her to leave.

She was practically forced out of guilt to leave the girls. She felt bad and then she decided she would make friends with the boys. They were so determined on the fact that Dana had a stupid crush on one of them that they didn't put it through their thick skulls that maybe after two months of her trying to get Dana and Sirius together that she maybe would've created a bond with the boys and didn't want to leave them.

She was too close to them now to leave them. And if she told them that it was all fake and she was just pretending at the beginning and she didn't really want their company till she actually got along with Sirius.

Sirius.

Her mind went back to him and seeing how happy he was when he saw the jacket that she gave him. She watched as she saw his cocky grin turn into a full-out smile that seemed wider than his face. 

She loved looking at the boy and getting a sense that she made him happy. She was his friend. 

_Friend._

They were just friends and Christine had a boyfriend. She had to keep the thoughts out at all costs. She couldn't risk telling anyone or even herself that she was jealous. Jealous of how Dana had pursued Sirius since second year and now was finally in his arms, getting smothered by his kisses. She wanted to know how to felt like to be kissed by him.

"Monty?" asked a voice.

She jumped a little and her hand fell from her lips as she was self consciously touching her lips as she imagined Sirius kissing her.

She turned to see the loved beige sweater that she liked so much. And of course, the boy with those brown iris's that she also liked.

"Remus," she breathed.

She saw as he slipped onto the rock next to her. He held his arms out and she rolled her eyes with a slight grin and went into his arms.

He wrapped arms around Christine and pressed her close to his body, his cheek resting on the top of her head.

"Are you okay, Chris?" he asked.

She let out a struggled sigh.

She couldn't tell him. He was her boyfriend. But she wanted to tell him it. She wanted to spill her secrets to someone other than Lily. She didn't dare tell Lily, but she wanted to tell Remus. They were in a relationship. They had to be honest. She couldn't be fantasizing about another boy while she was in her boyfriend's arms. She couldn't. 

Her thoughts were pounding in her head and she didn't know which ones to follow. She didn't know if she should be honest and tell the truth. Or if she should postpone the truth and just lie to his face.

"I'm fine," she said slowly.

Her voice was quiet and not very strong as she was facing an inner struggle.

"Are you sure?" He started to rub her arm up and down for comfort.

Oh, Remus was good at comforting.

Remus was always a caring person and put other people in front of him and this hurt her more. She knew what she was feeling was wrong because she was with Remus. She couldn't bear to see this boy who she liked so much look her in the eyes as she told him about how she was jealous of Dana. Of how she wanted Sirius to leave bite marks on her hands and neck.

"Have I told you about my little sister?" Christine asked. She wanted so desperately to change the subject so she couldn't think about him.

"No, do tell me."

"She's very hyper but deathly sweet. She always finds a way to make me smile when I most need it. She runs around and talks about her friends for hours. In the summer she is always telling me about what she learned and I listen because I don't have anything better to do. She tells me about how much she wishes she went to school with me. She always asks me to do magic for her. I can't though because of the law."

"She sounds a lot like you," Remus hummed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you want to be you can be _super_ hyper, especially around Sirius."

She froze but tried not to show it when he brought up his name.

He continued, "You also tell us about funny stories with Dana and Lily."

And there was Dana's name pounding in her head, mixed with Sirius'.

"You always make me smile and I listen to everything you say because I care about you."

She turned her lips up into a thin smile. It was fake. So desperately fake and she hated it. She wanted to have a real smile as he complimented her about her personality, but she couldn't bear to do it. She bear to give back compliments that she didn't mean. She would mean some of them.

"Thanks," she said.

Remus suddenly tensed up and Christine thought that maybe Remus could hear her thoughts somehow and he knew that she was thinking about Sirius and all these little things.

"Christine?" he whispered.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to say something and you don't have to say it back, but just be aware."

She knew what he was going to say but she stayed silent.

"I love you."

Her body felt like it went cold.

He had told her he loved her. She liked him so much but she didn't love him yet. She didn't know what to do so she sat up and gave him a warm smile.

All she was thinking was, _At least somebody loves me._

She didn't know how to respond because she wasn't going to tell Remus that she loved him when she wasn't there yet. Sure, he could be there and she didn't mind but that night didn't feel good at all for her. It was quite frankly the worst night for him to be confessing his love.

"Thank you," she said looking into his warm brown eyes.

Before he said anything else Christine leaned in and kissed him. She locked his lips with hers and there was a fire in their kiss. She was angry and jealous and he was in love. 

They broke into open mouth kisses and Remus groaned in her mouth causing her to feel very turned on. Remus teased her by slowly licking her bottom lip and then breaking into her mouth. Their tongues fought each other for dominance. Remus eventually won.

She had her hands tangled in his messy sandy-colored hair. It was smooth and very fluffy.

His hands roamed her back and moved up and down. He would sometimes let his hand come up to her cheek and hold onto it, only kissing her harder.

She felt like she was melting at his touch as he slowly traced her back lightly with his fingers. She kept her arms wrapped around his neck and tangled in his hair. She loved the feeling of his hands going down her body. She loved the feeling of kissing him without having to worry about choking to death. She loved the feeling but not the boy quite yet.

His hands reached her thighs and he leaned her back on the rock slowly placing her down on it. It was hard.

He pressed his body against her and moved his hands up and down her body as he pressed closer to her.

He was hard. She could feel it. The bludge in his pants was getting harder and suddenly she was smirking against his lips.

"What?" he laughed.

"Nothing," she replied.

He started kissing her again and she just wanted to grab his hand and started nibbling at it for some reason. She had a hand kink.

He suddenly pulled away from her and helped her sit up. He fixed his hair and fixed hers as well before giving her a soft kiss and saying, "I love you, Christine Monroe."

She looked at him again and saw the sparkle in his eyes.


	14. Awkward

The morning was not nice to Christine as she woke up with a hangover. She didn't even think she drank that much, but yet here she was with a hangover.

She dragged her ass out of bed and reluctantly took a shower to wipe off the memories of the day before that were engraved into her brain. Even though she now knew she was drunk but she still remembered watching Sirius kiss Dana the way that they were. The way his hand held onto her cheek and moved down her arm slowly and onto her waist, pulling her closer.

She turned off the shower quickly as she knew what she was thinking about and she couldn't think things like that because that would make her awkward around Sirius. 

She just had to act normal.

She had decided that the best way to deal with the jealousy was to cover it up and pretend that she was just drunk and vulnerable and she just took it the wrong way. But she didn't have to remember seeing Sirius and Dana as she knew that he probably had a hangover and so did Dana. Dana would kiss him sober either way.

She made her way up to her dormitory and Dana was still sleeping away. Lily was standing by her desk jotting down some last-minute ideas that probably popped into her head.

"How are you feeling?" Lily asked. She placed her quill down and moved over to Dana who she shook to wake up.

"I'm fine," Christine replied.

"Look, Chris-" I interrupted her.

"Don't call me Chris," Christine said as she turned to look at Lily who was very confused.

"I would like you to refer to me as Monty, I don't enjoy my name that much and I never had so please don't call me Chris."

"Oh okay." She was quiet almost awkward.

Dana stirred as Lily shook her more aggressively and she seemed more desperate to get Dana up for some reason. She seemed like she wanted to get away from Monty, she seemed awkward.

Dana got up with a huff and then went happily to take a shower which left Christine, Lily, and Marlene McKinnon.

Marlene looked up from the book she was reading and moved her head back and forth between Lily and Christine. She felt some awkward tension that almost everyone heard.

"I'll just- um go," Marlene said with a smile before leaving out the door slamming it behind her in discomfort.

Christine and Lily looked at each other and quickly away before they both gathered their bags. Chris' was heavy and she knew she had old Animgus books on it and it didn't surprise her because she was constantly trying to learn more and her attention was pulled away from her N.E.W.Ts.

"Lily, I just want to say thank you," Chris said.

"For what?"

"For trying to comfort me. Now I don't think I was honest. . . I don't really remember, but I remember that you were there and you asked me what's wrong and I don't remember what I said but thank you."

Lily looked really happy and her green eyes became glassy as she went up to Christine and pulled her into a hug. Christine immediately embraced Lily back. Lily rubbed circles on her back in comfort.

"You're welcome, Monty," she said with a smile.

Christine pulled back and looked at Lily with a very bright smile.

"You called me Monty."

"I called you Monty."

Monty was snapped back to reality as she heard the shower shut off and she quickly pulled out of the hug and grabbed her bag.

"The boys are probably waiting for me in the common room, I should get going."

Lily smiled at her and said, "Well, hang out with us more, we miss you, _and_ if Sirius and Dana get together or are then remember you can come back and ignore them. They are still annoying." Lily laughed at her words.

"I don't think I can leave them," Monty stated.

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm a Marauder," Christine replied with a twinkle in her eye.

***

"Here she comes!" Christine heard Sirius yell.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and tried to ignore the fact that she remembered everything about him kissing Dana. 

She gave him a smile as he hugged her.

He was wearing the leather jacket and not his robes which he would definitely get in trouble with McGonagall about. 

She pulled out of the hug and said, "Looks like someone likes their present."

A grin slipped across Sirius' face and he said, "hell yeah."

"Let's get breakfast," Remus said as he came up to Monty's side and grabbed her hand which made her blush.

They walked together down to the Great Hall with Sirius talking about the night before and then complaining hallway about a headache as he had forgotten about his potion that was in his room. He ran back to the dormitory trailing Peter and Remus behind him to help him find it.

That left James and Christine leaning against the wall waiting for them.

"Nice party last night," James said.

Chris didn't expect James to talk so she snapped her head towards him and smiled lightly.

"Thank you, I put a lot of work into it, well just making sure prefects weren't patrolling the halls, well mostly actually just getting prefects to join the party."

"It was really nice of you. Sirius has been having a tough year and it was very sweet of you to throw him a party and you know to get him that _really_ cool leather jacket."

"You want one, James?"

"Maybe."

"Consider it done, but it may end getting lost between all the leather jackets I'm already getting for Peter."

James laughed quietly and then they returned to just leaning against the wall in silence.

It was quiet and Christine didn't know what to say. It was a little bit awkward, yes, and she was going to awkward probably the rest of the day. She had just a terrible night and she was going to hate how uncomfortable she would be and how much she would suffer internally.

Dana and Lily appeared coming down the staircase arm in arm with smiles on their faces. They looked so gleeful and in their own little world that Monty felt a little left out as she looked at her feet and tried not to think of the girls. 

Sure, Christine and Lily had made up and Dana and Christine weren't as close anymore and it was a struggle around her because she didn't know how to act around her friend anymore. It felt off because she wasn't able to see her or talk to her as much but she wanted to an effort and her kissing Sirius would push her to because she had made a deal with Dana and Lily and she had to follow through what it.

"Hey, James, Monty," Lily said with a smile.

"Monty?" Dana asked in confusion. She was beaming and it hurt Christine as she looked at the happy girl.

"It's her nickname, she _is_ the coolest Marauder," James said while slinging an arm around Monty's shoulder. 

She knew he was doing this because of the plan even if he wasn't aware of it. He was always steering her away from Lily and Dana trying to prevent her from being hurt or attacked by them even when James didn't put more effort into hanging out with her. He always had her back.

Dana froze and looked at Christine with what seemed like defeat but there was a wide grin spread across Monty's face as she thought about how deathly sweet James was to her.

"Y-you're a Marauder?" she asked in her quiet voice, no longer beaming.

James answered, "We made it official on Sirius' birthday. She was _so_ happy to finally have some friends."

"Shut up, James," Christine said.

Lily looked at Dana and she seemed sad so Lily said, "Where's Sirius? Dana would love to talk to him." Lily clutched Dana's arm tighter while looking at James with a smile and then at Dana.

"He's in the dormitory, I'll go get him," James said. 

He gave Christine a questioning glance as to ask if she would be fine with the girls being there. She quickly nodded softly at him and he gave a cheeky grin before leaving up the staircase.

" _So,_ you and James huh?" Dana asked.

Lily and Christine's eyes both widened and she shook her head in confusion.

"W-what do you mean, Dana?" Christine said.

"Well, he was teasing you, I don't know. That's how boys flirt isn't it?"

"Dana," Lily said. "Don't be daft, there is _nothing_ going on between _James_ and Chri- Monty."

"Okay, then who do you have a crush on, Chris?" 

"Don't call her Chris," Lily snapped.

"What do I call her?" Dana asked shyly.

"Just call me Monty. I'm not as secretive as the boys with my nickname, I like it. I never liked the name Christine, it sounds too rich and it sounds like a spoiled person."

"Okay. Well, then _who_ out of the Marauders do you have a crush on?"

Lily and Christine both stared at Dana with mouths wide open in confusion.

"Remus. But he and I are dating so I wouldn't call it a crush." She would call it somehow becoming jealous of Sirius' girls and finding comfort in Remus. That sounded wrong.

"I forgot!" Dana said loudly.

"We should get going," Lily said quickly as she saw the boys come out of the portrait hole.

"Bye, _Monty_ ," Dana said with a chilling smile on her face as her knees buckled and Lily caught her quickly with wide eyes.

Christine watched the girls in confusion before Lily got Dana standing up on her own and Lily went up to Monty's ear and whispered, "That was from Sirius last night." She smiled lightly before leaving.

Christine watched as Dana tried not to limp as she smiled back at Sirius who winked at her. She watched as her friend was limping because of _Sirius Black._ The most innocent friend of hers did some things with Sirius that Chris didn't want to think about, she couldn't. It would make her more jealous or just make her have an unsaid hatred towards Dana which she could never do.

Remus came up to Chris and gave her an adorable smile and decided to give him a hug. She wrapped her arms around him and dug her head into his chest as his long arms wrapped around her.

Remus eventually grabbed her shoulders and pulled her off of him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Monty said. 

Remus smirked at her and held his hand on her waist as they walked down to the Great Hall to finally get some breakfast.

***

"So. . . O'Brien," James said with an evil smirk towards Sirius.

Sirius rolled his eyes and made eye contact with Monty for a second before turning his look towards James again.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Sirius replied with a little bit of blush rising to his cheeks.

"Oh come on, Pads, she was limping because of _you_ ," James pointed his bacon towards Sirius and he just rolled his eyes in response.

"What's it to you?" Sirius took a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"Does it matter?" James still left that cheeky grin on his lips that he had in the staircase.

" _Fine._ Yes, I had sex with O'Brien last night."

Christine choked on her pumpkin juice and tried not to show it. 

She looked around at the boys and Sirius looked annoyed with his messy dark hair pulled up into a bun as he looked hungover. James looked like he was enjoying himself while he let his eyes trail to Chris and then look down at his plate. Remus looked perfectly oblivious to the situation and was just reading away like he always did. Peter was looking a little down. A little too down.

"What's wrong, Pete?" Monty asked.

He looked up from his toast and said, "Nothing."

She could tell by the look on his face that either he had a crush on Sirius or Dana because when Sirius said those words his head dropped. He seemed sad and tiresome. She felt bad for the boy that would always be second best to his friends.

***

The day went on like normal with Sirius being scolded for wearing his jacket instead of his robes which James gave her three galleons for getting right.

She seemed to forget about the whole situation between Dana and Sirius and them having sex. She forgot about that till she got to her dormitory.

She had gotten sick of Dana tell Lily all the details and the way she felt when he touched her. She didn't want to hear about it. She didn't want to know the feeling she got when he was inside of her or the giddy smiles he gave at the end as she cuddled up next to him. Lily cringed too but kept listening.

It was maybe two in the morning and Dana, Lily, and the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years had fallen asleep and Chris was becoming restless.

She went down to the common room and saw a mop of messy black hair sitting on the couch. She approached it and sat down beside the boy. 

They didn't say anything as they both stared into the fire feeling a little bit weird but they didn't care. They didn't want to talk till James broke the silence.

"I know."


	15. Secrets

"Know what?" Christine asked.

She felt a sudden feeling of fear knowing James knew something that she didn't. James was always nice in that way and from him being nice to her the other day it really helped. She trusted the boy but she wanted to know what he knew.

"That you have a thing for Sirius," he said simply.

Christine turned her head to look at James who was looking into the fireplace without another look at her.

"I don't," she said quickly.

"Yeah, you do."

"I don't."

"Okay, then why did you run out of the Room of Requirement when you saw Dana and Sirius in the corner?"

"I-"

"Or when I was talking to Sirius about him sleeping with Dana and your eyes not giving off the normal amount of happiness you normally have?"

"James-"

"Or when you look at Sirius and he looks back and you blush?"

"James, I don't like-"

"Or whenever you're in the library with him and Moony, you always pay attention to Sirius?

"I'm not trying whatsoever to accuse you of cheating on Remus, but you can be honest with me, Monty. Do you like Sirius?"

She looked at her folded hands on her lap. She knew she felt jealousy towards Dana. She didn't like the feeling, none of it.

"I don't know, James. One second I'm looking at Remus and I realize I really like him but I look at Sirius and he starts playing around with me. Goofing off and being more fun than Remus. Don't get me wrong, I really like Remus but whenever I look at Sirius I feel a little bit happier."

"I get that. I've been trying to get with other girls to get my mind off Lily, but I just can't. I feel happier when I look at Lily."

The boy looked at her and she gave a half-hearted smile which he returned in the same manner. He didn't look happy at all and Christine didn't look happy either. When she looked at the boy during the day, around his friends, he would always be the overactive boy who goofed around and go into detention but when he was alone like this he looked sadder than good.

James laughed lightly and said, "Look at us two, both pining over people who will probably never notice us. Well, not you just me."

"Stop it, James." She whacked his arm and he laughed. "Lily is starting to like you, a little bit."

"How do you know?" He teased, sticking his tongue out at her.

"You see, I didn't actually get into a fight with them."

She stopped herself. She wasn't supposed to tell any of the Marauders but here she was just telling James that they didn't get into a fight. She was ready to pour all her secrets out to him and she didn't know if it was fair to the other Marauders.

"What do you mean?" he said with a smile.

"Dana has had this _huge_ crush on Sirius since second year, and when I say huge I mean _huge_."

He kept the smile on his face like a truly happy person which made Christine smile and look down at her hands.

" _So,_ at the beginning of term the girls wanted me to become friends with you guys and I did just that."

"And the point of your little experiment was?"

"To get Sirius and Dana together."

She couldn't help but think of the night that they came up with the plan. Everyone was happy and teasing each other till Lily came up with the idea of having Christine hang out with the group so they could get the two together and Chris agreeing and rolling her eyes before letting the girls talk about whatever they were.

"So, wait let me get this right. You became friends with _us_ so you could get your friend and Sirius together? How would that do anything? Sirius noticed Dana on his own."

"I'm the one that threw the party."

"Yeah but Sirius gets a party every year."

"Stop."

"What?" he said with a wide grin spreading across his face and him throwing his hands up in mock surrender.

"James." She gave him a serious look as she tried to keep her face straight.

"Monty," he said trying to keep his face straight as well but losing very quickly.

"Stop." The grin broke across her face.

"I'm not doing anything."

She rolled her eyes and stood up from the couch. The smile was still on her face as she watched James push his glasses up.

"I'm going to bed."

"Fine."

Christine got up from the couch and started to walk towards the dormitory.

"Monty!" James called.

Chris snapped her head back and raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"At least they aren't together." He sent her a reassuring smile.

***

"I was wrong. I was so wrong," James said the next morning as he walked into the Great Hall with Christine by his side.

"What do you mean?" Chris asked.

And that's when she saw it. Dana. Sirius. Attached at the lips at breakfast.

She grabbed James' arm and pulled him out of the Great Hall quickly and down a random corridor.

"Did you tell Sirius?" Christine asked. She was angry at James because she was pretty sure that when she went back up to her dormitory James had told the boys everything that she had said to him.

"I would never," James admitted.

She put her hands on her hips and gave James a dark stare.

"Look, Monty, I would never say anything like that without your permission. You never told me if I could tell them or not so I didn't just in case you wanted to be the one to tell them. And Sirius was asleep when I got back to the dormitory and he was gone when I woke up."

"Dana was gone when I woke up as well. That probably means they're together," she said as any hope of a smile dripped away from her face and she could feel it.

James saw that and put his hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him and he said, "Monty, don't. I know you kind of like Sirius but you need to just you know chill? You need to stay calm and not give away any hints of you liking the boy. I'll be right beside you if you feel like you're going to mess up or let anything slip."

She looked up at the boy who had the most honest look in the eye that she had seen in a while and before she knew it, she was giving James a hug. He hugged her back and placed his chin on top of her head.

"It's okay, Monty, I'll be right beside you."

She pulled out of the hug and he was smiling which caused her to smile back at the boy.

"I don't deserve you, James. Whoever you marry will be a lucky girl," she said.

Blush flooded the boy's cheeks as he and Christine started to walk towards the Great Hall. They walked and people were eyeing James and Chris felt really odd because they would eye James and then Christine who was walking very close to James because she was a little scared to go up to the boys.

They got to the table and Sirius and Dana broke apart and Dana started to catch her breath as Sirius acted as he did it every other day, which was probably true.

She took a seat next to James and Remus. Remus looked up from his book and gave Christine a quick peck on the cheek before returning to his book. The sandy-haired boy really knew how to make her blush.

"You are down here a little later than normal," Sirius stated as he took his attention to the out of breath Dana and looking across the table towards James and Christine who were slowly putting their food on their plates.

"Late night," they both said at the same time, and then they looked at each other and laughed a little bit.

"You two seem different," Sirius said with a questioning look but a smile on his face.

"How so?" Christine said. 

Her dark blue eyes trailed to Dana who had placed her hand on top of Sirius' and he wasn't even looking at it. Dana also started to play with his hair.

"Hey, don't touch the hair," Sirius said as he moved away at the little touch of Dana.

"Sorry, Siri," Dana said with a sweet smile before she grabbed Sirius' face in her hands and kissed him. 

He started to pull away and when he did he was blushing and then his eyes trailed to Christine's as she was looking at her plate with her knuckles going white from that one kiss.

That one kiss. She found it silly. She didn't deny her slight feelings for the boy but her boyfriend was sitting right beside her. She found herself looking at Sirius who was watching her before he dropped his eyes to his plate. 

"Just don't kiss me right now, O'Brien, I'm trying to talk to my friends," he said nicely to her.

"You can call me Dana you know," Dana reminded him, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Sorry about that," Sirius said as he turned back to James and Chris. 

James and Christine both eyed each other with smiles on their faces. James under the table patted her leg and gave her a reassuring look which she returned.

"So, Prongs, Monty, why were you up so late last night?" Sirius poked.

"Just leave them alone," Remus said with a slight smile that lit up his features and made him look very adorable.

"Studying," James said.

"What subject?"

"Herbology," Chris said.

They all went back to their food as James and Sirius started talking about Quidditch and how the tryouts were late this year due to James postponing them because of his school load and now they were mid-Novemeber about a week before their first match against Hufflepuff.

"Are you trying out for Quidditch?" Remus asked after he saw that Christine wasn't talking to anyone and just sitting there playing with her food.

"Yeah, I think so, let's just be thankful that James moved the tryouts, and now I can actually try out."

"Was it a concern before?"

"Well, you know the leaf would've restrained me from being able to breathe properly and so it kind of helps that James has been so focused on school."

"I guess that is good. Look, Professor Madden is needing help with the first years," Remus said as he got up and gave Christine a little kiss and left her sitting by James who was caught up in a conversation, and Peter who was looking a little sad.

Christine moved down the bench and went right up next to the boy who looked at her in confusion. She didn't spend much time with him but she enjoyed how sweet he was.

"Why are you so down?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Peter said with a wild expression that looked slightly scared.

"Well, after you found out what Sirius and Dana did the other night you haven't been the same."

He looked at the two boys who were laughing away and he quickly turned back to the brown-haired girl and said, "Do you promise not to tell anyone?" He looked like he was depending on her to say yes so of course, she said, "Yes."

"I-I-I like Dana," he said under his breath quickly.

Monty's eyes widened and then she changed her expression not to show anything that she wasn't displaying before.

"Really?"

"Yes. Don't tell anyone, it'll hurt Sirius."

"You're so sweet, Peter, and of course I will not tell a soul, I solemnly swear."

James pulled Christine over quickly and just said, "What did you say?"

"W-what?" She eyed James to try to tell him that she wasn't going to share the information about Peter because Peter would do the same unless he was in grave danger and needed to give it away.

"You said 'I will not tell a soul, I.'" He moved his hand to usher Christine to finish.

"Solemnly swear?" she said.

"There it is!" James exclaimed.

"You guys are going to need to explain to me what you're talking about."

"We'll tell you after classes," James said with an evil grin.

***

Classes flew by slowly for Christine as she was hanging onto the thought that the boys would tell her what she needed to know. She was so curious and just wanted to hear them say something and just tell her.

She bugged them throughout classes but they would never budge, not even Peter when she threatened to tell people about his secret, which she would never do but it was worth a try.

When it finally came time she ran out of her dormitory as she just saw the four boys in the common room lounging. 

She went up to Remus and slipped onto the loveseat that was right next to him. She sat close to him and tried not to look at Sirius or think of Sirius at all.

"Spit it out," she said as she gave a hard glare towards James who just broke out into a smile.

"We need to show you something," Sirius said.

"And what is it?"

"The Marauder's Map," Remus said.


	16. The Marauder's Map

"The what?"

"The Marauder's Map," James said this time.

Christine raised her eyebrow and looked at the boys in confusion. They kept their smirks on their faces as Remus placed his arm around Christine, causing her to cuddle right up next to him.

James watched her and she looked at him with guilt in her eyes as James quickly nodded his head and let a smile appear on his face. Oh, Christine loved James.

"It's a map we created," Sirius said with a smile on his face. "It shows us who is where in the castle and what they're doing."

"Every minute," James said.

"Of every day," Sirius finished him off.

"So why is this so important to me?" Christine asked as she placed her head on Remus's shoulder.

"You came up with something we needed," Remus said as he kissed her head which made her squeeze her eyes shut.

"What do you mean?" 

"You see, Monty, we needed a kind of- what's the word?" James said.

"Password," Peter said.

"Yes, password, thanks, Wormtail."

"We wanted to make sure no one could break into it easily and thanks to _you_ and Moony we can now show you it," Sirius said.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment.

Christine pulled out of Remus's arms and leaned forward to take a better look at it. Sirius handed it to her and their hands brushed by each other and Chris quickly pulled the piece of parchment towards her.

"It's just an old piece of parchment," Chris said.

"Nope," James spoke, "it isn't."

James had his wand in his hand and he placed it onto the parchment and said, "I solemnly swear that I up to no good."

Christine looked down at the parchment and suddenly lines started to be drawn on it, appearing with words. She spoke them out loud.

"Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, are proud to present the _Marauder's Map_?" 

"Prongs, you forgot to add Monty," Remus said.

"No, don't put my name on it, I would rather it just the four of you, they don't need to know I was here."

"But you're a Marauder," said James. He looked at her with a glitter in his eyes as he kept eye contact with her and she smiled.

"Okay, I am a Marauder, _but_ I don't want my name on there because I'm a new addition and you put on _Messers_ which means misters. And _I_ am no man."

"Okay, how about this," Sirius was grinning from ear to ear with his idea. "We put you on as a messer _but_ of course you aren't one but they won't know that, will they? It'll throw people off, don't you think?"

"Look, Padfoot has come up with his _first_ good idea in his life," James teased.

"Please, Monty?" Remus said softly, almost a whisper.

Remus looked into the boy's green eyes and he looked so vulnerable. It caused her to look at her hands that were folded on her lap, she couldn't look at the boy she so badly wanted to like.

Instead, she settled her eyes on Sirius' and his eyes were soft. They were enticing. The grey suddenness made her shiver as she looked at him. His grey eyes warming up her heart as he looked at her. Everything felt right.

Sirius matched his eyes up to the girl's deep blue eyes and he felt terrible because he and Dana had something but it didn't seem like enough when he looked at her. He felt his world was going to fall apart if he didn't get Christine. He knew he wanted her but he couldn't have her because she was Moony's and Moony's for years. She chose Remus and not him and he had to live with it, but he didn't care as long as he got to make eye contact with her and look into her warm eyes.

"Okay," she said quietly.

"Awesome!" James said.

Christine took one last look at Sirius as he looked at her and quickly snapped her head away to Remus who had a little smile on his face.

She looked out of the corner of her eye as Remus told her about the map and saw Sirius staring with something she couldn't identify. She indeed wanted to know the thoughts behind this boy and she was so interested in him that she couldn't wait much longer.

"You see, look, Snape is lingering in the corridor right there," Remus said as he pointed towards a name that was moving around a little. 

She tried to pay attention to Remus but eye contact didn't help. She was stuck in a place fighting amongst herself. She was telling herself that she liked Remus and Remus alone while there was a force fighting back that told her all the great things about Sirius that made her smile when she thought of it.

"Could you give me a second?" Christine asked Remus and he looked at her and kissed her on the cheek before nodding.

Christine got up and motioned James to follow her and James said one last thing to Peter before standing up and following Chris.

They were on the other side of the common room with Sirius now talking lively to Peter and Remus while Peter chuckled and Remus kept looking over at James and Christine.

"What is it?" James asked.

"I made eye contact with Sirius," she answered.

"So you pulled me over here to tell me that you made eye contact with Padfoot?"

"It wasn't just any kind of eye contact because I felt something and I don't like it and now my mind is internally struggling to fight back thoughts of Sirius."

"So it was like a longing look?"

"Yes."

"Like this?" James straightened his face and tried to smolder which made Christine laugh.

"Nothing like that."

"This?" He changed his expression to a grimace.

"He wasn't grimacing. Okay, he looked at me with this-this-this _look_."

"Like this?" He finally fixed his eyes on Christine's and it gave off a sad or longing look.

"Yes!" She yelled which caused the boys to look over and she awkwardly smiled at them before whispering, "Yes."

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shi-"

"How many times can you use the word shit?"

"A lot."

"Okay, then _why_ are you saying shit?"

"Because that's Pads, um, sad look it means he's internally struggling as well and that's not good."

"Why?"

"Cause that means he might like you back."

"You could've told me sooner?"

"For one, you _didn't_ ask, and two, he doesn't talk about you."

"I am not an idiot, James, but this means that he-"

"Might like you back."

"But, him and Dana?"

"I don't know, I didn't know anything about the whole Sirius and Dana thing till this morning."

"Did you have your suspicions."

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"So you didn't even tell me your suspicions?"

"They don't matter, Monty. Now, can we go back to the boys?"

"Fine."

She crossed her arms across her chest and walked back towards the group of boys that were chatting away.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," James and Chris said at the same time. They both looked at each other and laughed at that.

Christine laid down and placed her head on Remus's lap as he played with her hair and sometimes kissed her on her forehead, nose, or lips. The boys were complaining about how sweet Remus was being.

"What would happen if we pranked Snivellus?" Sirius asked as he leaned back on the couch, propping his arms behind his head. 

"We'd get in trouble," Remus answered.

"Not if we used the invisibility cloak."

"Invisibility what?" Christine sat up quickly and looked at the group of boys who had smirks on their faces. She made eye contact with Sirius first and held his gaze for a few seconds before looking between the three other boys. She saw James who was watching Sirius intently, probably observing him.

"Prongs has an invisibility cloak. Mind you, he took it off his father," Sirius said.

"Want to see it?" James asked.

"Of course! I've never seen one."

James got up and went up to the dormitory and left the four down there. They were all quiet. Remus was always quiet, Peter was too and everything between Christine and Sirius just felt awkward for some reason.

She looked at the dark-haired boy a couple of times and their eyes would meet and they both would quickly flicker their eyes away from each other. They couldn't just look at each other and Christine found it odd, she wanted to leave the awkwardness that arose so quickly, she didn't like it.

James came down the stairs loudly, not even care about the people who were asleep and jolted back to the couch.

He had a cloak in his hands and he put it on. He left his head out of the cloak and his body disappeared which caused Christine to gasp in shock.

James Potter's head was floating in mid-air. He had no body, it was gone. It was shocking and she found herself in awe of the cloak.

"Wow," she said.

"Let's go prank Snivellus."

***

Three of them were under the cloak as Sirius held the map in his hands and James and Christine were on either side of him. She was surprised that they all fit under there but it probably helped that she was pretty small.

They slipped down corridors as Sirius told them where people were and what corridors to avoid. The look of fear stayed on Christine's face as she was scared of people who might catch them, but they couldn't see them so that was nice.

They finally reached where Snape was and he was standing there, against the wall, greasy hair and all. Christine watched as he didn't know of the three people watching him slowly. He didn't hear Sirius chuckled silently to himself as he looked at the boy who was reading a book.

James opened the cage he had and pulled out the gross looked Blast-Ended Skrewt and placed it on the ground. The creature slithered its way towards Snape and Snape looked at it with wide eyes before standing up and running down the corridor away from the creature that James had placed.

The trio stayed silent as they walked back to the common room where none of the teachers knew they left.

The stairs were dark and they had to be careful as Christine could barely see. Sirius would catch her if she tripped and she would say thank you quietly and keep walking.

They finally got back to the portrait and it swung open after James gave the password and they collapsed on the couch in laughter.

"Did you see his face?" Sirius said between his fits of laughter.

"He looked like he was about to shit himself," James said as he fell off the couch which made the group laugh even harder.

"I bet he did."

After about ten minutes of giggling, they all calmed down and started to talk about the map more and what it did.

"Hey, James, where did you get a Blast-Ended Skrewt?" Christine asked.

James froze and looked at Sirius and Christine with a guilty look.

" _James_ ," Chris said.

"Okay, fine I took it from Hagrid, he had some for some reason and I asked to see one and I stole it and now it's lingering in the corridors of Hogwarts. Should we be scared?"

"Depends," Sirius said. "How many times did it sting you?"

"About twelve."

"Wait, where were you keeping it?" Christine asked.

"In my trunk."

"Oh, that's why the trunk was making weird noises."

"Probably."

They heard footsteps coming down the staircase and they turned their heads to see a student in their robes with their books in hand going towards a table.

"What time is it?" James asked.

"Seven why?" Sirius said as he looked at his watch.

"We've been up for a _long_ time," Christine said.

"Yeah and Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow, well today."

"I guess we're not getting sleep," Sirius said.

"I guess not."

They all laughed and went up to get ready for their day.


	17. Quidditch

Christine, James, and Sirius made their way down towards the quidditch pitch to start to set up for tryouts. It was wet and that means it would be the fun kind of quidditch because there would be mud everywhere and it would all be messy, making the tryouts messy always cheered everyone up.

James started to look at the parchment with the names of who was trying out while Chris and Sirius went to get some extra quaffles. 

"So, how are you and Moony going?" Sirius asked. He had a hopeful glint in his grey eyes that made Christine smile.

"We're doing okay," she replied.

"He seems head over heels," Sirius stated.

She stopped for a second and Sirius walked a couple more steps till he stopped and looked back at Christine who was staring right at him.

"Chrisy?"

"Sorry, yeah, he is I guess."

"Has he told you he loves you?"

She kept walking forward with Sirius following her close by her side as she felt her muscles tense.

"Sorry, Chrisy, if you're comfortable with it. He says he loves you all the time." He ran a hand through his black hair.

"He has but I don't quite remember it, I think I was drunk," she laughed at little and then stopped at the broom closest.

"Should we grab extra brooms too?" Sirius asked.

"Probably."

Sirius lifted up the trunk that held extra quaffle's and Christine took about three brooms in her hands and they started to walk back to James who was watching people leave the changeroom awkwardly. He was ready to be captain.

"Look a little nervous there, Prongs," Sirius said.

"I do? I'm not. Not at all," James said with he was slightly whacking his leg with the roll of parchment.

They placed the brooms and balls down and stood there beside James, the rain started to drizzle a little harder than before and Christine felt herself get cold. She crossed her arms and tried to bundle up into her quidditch robes.

"Did you bring a scarf?" Sirius asked. 

Chris snapped her head towards him and he had his Gryffindor scarf in his hands.

"No, I don't tend to play quidditch with a scarf," she replied.

"It's awfully cold, Monty, you should get one," James said as he wrapped his scarf around his neck, shivering.

"I can ask Remus for his," she said as she looked up at the stands where Remus was sitting looking really cold and Peter conjuring a fire to warm himself up.

"Moony looks like he's going to freeze his ass off, so take mine," Sirius said as he walked over to Christine and slowly wrapped the scarf around her neck. 

She looked at Sirius as he looked at her neck, making sure the scarf was not going to fall off when she was on the broom. She watched his eyes and he looked at her with a smile.

"Better?" Sirius asked.

"Better," she said, breathing heavily. 

They held eye contact for a few seconds before Sirius smiled and looked over towards the group of scarlet robes walking over to them.

"You've got this, Prongs," Sirius said right next to James.

"I don't know," James said as he smiled at the group.

Christine grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "You've got this Captain James."

He looked at her with a smile before pulling his hand away and walking towards the group of people.

Christine looked at Sirius and laughed a little bit and he laughed as well before turning his attention towards James.

"Welcome to the quidditch tryouts. Now, I know that these are _really_ late in the year but our first game is this Saturday and we need to make the team. So, this year I'm looking for everything except beaters, as our own star beaters, Monroe and Black are helping me with captaining. Every other position is up to the talent. Also, if you made the team last year it does not mean that you will make it this year."

Some third-year raised her hand and James nodded for her to talk.

"Then why do Black and Monroe get to play?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and said, "If you listened you would've heard that we're helping James with captaining _and_ we're better than every other beater pair at this school."

The third-year huffed and looked back at James.

"Thank you for that, Sirius," James said before shooting Sirius a warning look which made Christine look at Sirius and he was looking at her. She quickly laughed and Sirius did too.

They both burst out into laughter and neither knew why they were laughing so hard but they kept laughing.

"Okay, _everyone_ ," James said, looking right at Sirius and Monty. "Grab a quaffle, pair up and throw it back and forth, I'll deal with these two. And if you don't have a broom there are a few extra ones."

People started to scatter and team up as James marched over to Sirius and Christine who kept laughing. James rolled his eyes and stared at the two of them who kept looking at each other, laughing, and then looking quickly away.

"What are you laughing about?" James asked, scowling.

"You sound so authoritative," Sirius said through his laughs.

"That's what I'm supposed to be," James responded.

"Yes, but it's funny because you are the most laid back person," Chris said, biting her lip to hold back laughs and looking towards Sirius. 

James observed the situation quickly and looked at Sirius who was laughing at him and then at Chrisy who was watching Sirius while biting her lip. James internally huffed and grabbed a quaffle, throwing it at Christine.

It hit her in the arm and she rubbed the spot and said, "What was that for?"

Christine looked at him and he moved his head slightly towards Sirius with a strange look in his eye.

"Are you okay, mate?" Sirius said while watching him try to communicate without words to Christine.

"I think he's having a seizure," Christine replied with a smirk on her face, she knew exactly what he meant.

"The stress is finally getting to him," Sirius said.

"Get a quaffle and throw or else you guys aren't making the team."

"You can't do that," Sirius said.

"Yes I can and I will put Gilderoy Lockhart on the team who is a Ravenclaw."

"Shove off, Potter," Christine said before grabbing the quaffle that was thrown at her and mounting her broom before shooting off into the air.

Sirius and James both went up as well and they started to throw the quaffle back and forth, slowly to watch the people struggling to catch the quaffle, diving to get it and looping around to pitch to show off which made James roll his eyes. 

Everyone was having fun and then James called everyone in and split us into two teams with Christine and Sirius being the captains so James could watch the match.

The teams each had one beater, a seeker, two chasers, and a keeper and the match was fairly even. 

"Shake hands!" James said as Sirius was flying down by Christine.

Chris and Sirius met in mid-air and shook hands. Sirius pulled her forward and said, "You're going to lose so hard."

"In your dreams, Black." She said before she gripped her bat in her right hand and the broom in her left and flew back up to where people were looking very nervous.

"Okay, everyone, are we ready?" Chris said with a lot of energy.

The kids all mumbled a "yeah" and they looked like they weren't going to have a fun time. 

Christine looked across the pitch and Sirius was in a huddle with his team whispering things to them and James was floating above them nagging them.

"Hurry up, Padfoot!" James said.

"Just one more minute!" Sirius called before looking around at the kids.

"Sirius, go faster! We aren't getting any younger here!" Christine called from across the pitch which made Sirius look up and smirk at her, giving her a wink which made her blush and she quickly looked back down at her broom.

"Okay, we're going!" James said before Sirius was finished and he just threw the quaffle up in the air as the chasers from Chris's team flew forward and caught the quaffle. They weren't the best at flying but they would do.

The bludger flew up in the air and started flying around as Sirius realized that James had started. Sirius gripped his broom tightly and leaned forward as he raced to get the bludger out of the way of his keeper. 

He hit the bludger with his bat and it started to fly towards James. Christine rolled her eyes as she went off speeding towards James and hitting the bludger towards some kid trying out for chaser. They looked at the bludger and his eyes widened as he clearly wanted to get away. He took his focus off of the game and started to fly away from the bludger flying towards him.

Sirius and Christine both went towards the boy with their bats in their hands and brooms gripped tight, rain pounding down on their heads. 

Christine was right behind Sirius and they found themselves racing each other with smiles across their faces. Christine leaned forward more on the broom, pushing it forward to inch towards Sirius. She slowly took the lead and Sirius pushed his broom to go a little bit farther and so it went back and forth.

The boy was still trying to get away from the bludger and Christine realized it and pulled up to slow down and turn to where the boy was, almost screaming. Chris laughed as she went over to the boy and whacked the bludger out of the way.

Chris saw a keeper struggling to stay on their broom and once again she was annoyed and she rolled her eyes as she flew towards the keeper, leaving Sirius to take care of the bludger.

"Are you okay?" Christine called through the pouring rain.

"I don't have a good grip on the broom!" The third-year said. She had a scared face and she looked terrified. 

"Let me get James!" Chris called back.

"No! I want to prove myself for the team! I deserve to be on this team!" She said with force. She focused her eyes on the chaser with the quaffle tucked under their arm, coming towards the girl. The quaffle was thrown by a seventh year and the keeper quickly zipped down to her left where she stopped the quaffle from going in and then pulling up on her broom, struggling as she went back to the middle hoop.

"Nice save!" Christine called as she saw her seeker getting chased by the bludger that Sirius had hit in their direction.

She zoomed through the air, avoiding the people flying by, smoothly till she saw the seeker who was completely oblivious. 

Christine was almost there but it was too late and the bludger hit the fifth year and he started to crash on his broom. He wasn't too high in the air but he was certainly unconscious as he fell through the air.

Chris dove down to the grass and got off her broom and walked towards the boy who was laying on the ground with his arms and legs spread out.

James came flying down with Sirius too and everyone followed, forgetting about the game that was going on. 

They stood over his body and Christine pulled out her wand and poked his face.

"Is he dead?" Sirius asked.

"He isn't you imbecile," Christine responded.

"Thanks," Sirius said with a chuckle.

Christine looked at Sirius and then back down at the boy who was moving a little bit. He moved his hand to his head. He then groaned and pushed himself up with his arms. 

"What happened?" He looked at the swarm of people and was confused.

"Bludger was hit towards you by Black," Christine said.

He groaned again.

Sirius laughed a little and Christine hit him in the arm and gave him a look and he stopped.

"I'll take him to the hospital wing. James, finish the tryouts," Christine said as she wrapped an arm around the boy and hoisted him up and he was leaning on Chris.

"I can help," Sirius offered.

"No, it's okay, but take your scarf." She pulled off his scarf and gave it to him. "What? I don't want you to get cold."

Sirius laughed a little and wrapped the scarf around his neck. He breathed in the scent of the rain mixed with a floral scent and broomsticks, the best smell he's smelt. 

Christine took the boy to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey was not happy with it at all.

"This is why I don't like people playing quidditch in the rain!" Madam Pomfrey said as she looked at the boy's head, muttering things to heal it.

"Why?" Christine asked as she sat down next to the boy to keep him company.

"Because nobody can see a damn bludger," Madam Pomfrey said with anger quivering in her voice.

She inspected the boy's body to make sure he wasn't hurt but he had some bruising around his eye which didn't make much sense, given that he didn't land head first or the bludger didn't hit his face.

"Where are these from?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I-I got into a fight," he said while he looked to the side at Christine and she had her focus on Madam Pomfrey.

"Who hit you?" she asked.

"S-Sirius Black," he said quickly.

Madam Pomfrey looked at Christine and then back at the boy and said, "Now, why on earth would Sirius Black hit you?"

"I was um- making fun of Monroe and he heard," he said before he looked over at Chris and her mouth was left agape. "I-It wasn't bad, I was just saying how you became friends with the Marauders for popularity."

Christine rolled her eyes and stood up from her seat, hands clenched in fists. "Thank you, Madam Pomfrey." She didn't even acknowledge the boy as she turned around and walked out of the room.

Why was Sirius defending her? Why was Sirius even fighting anyone? And why was that boy so rude?


	18. First Crush

They sat in the common room while Sirius, James, and Christine all debated who should be put on the quidditch team. There were a few good kids but not as many James hoped for. He wanted a bigger selection but he didn't have it because people were too worried that James was going to be a mistrusted captain but to be fair he did hold tryouts two months after school started.

"What about Holly Mosby?" Christine said as she pointed at the name of the third year who played keeper.

"She was a pain in the ass," Sirius said as he put his feet on the table.

"Did you see the save she made when she couldn't grip her broom?" Christine folded her arms and looked at him

"No," he said.

"Oh right, that's because you pounded that seeker."

"Oh come on!" Sirius threw his hands up.

James looked at them both and said, "Will you _please_ stop arguing like an old married couple?" He smiled at them both before looking back at the parchment.

Sirius and Christine both stopped and looked at each other awkwardly. They quickly stopped arguing and watched as James made the team.

Once the list was compiled James pinned it to the announcement board where students started to swarm.

_Gryffindor Quidditch Team 1976_

_Seeker  
Mark Newman_

_Keeper  
Holly Mosby_

_Beaters  
Sirius Black  
Christine Monroe_

_Chasers  
James Potter  
Jerry King  
Anna Carlisle_

Christine looked at the list and was very happy. That fifth year didn't make it as seeker and instead, a seventh year made the team which was amazing because he was good. That third-year made the team because she clearly was committed. Obviously, Sirius and Christine made the team because they were helping Sirius. The chasers weren't bad either but Anna needed to work on pulling up on her broom.

Chris sat back down on the couch right next to Remus. He put his book down and smiled at her. She smiled back as his light pink lips looked so tempting. He smiled wider when he realized that she was looking at his lips.

He lifted her chin up with two fingers and gave her a small kiss. She blushed and tucked her loose hair behind her ear.

"I'm going to sleep, but goodnight, Monty, I love you," he said as he shivered in his sweater and left the common room.

She looked at the empty spot on the couch and she wanted it filled right away. Anything to get the seat filled with a warm body would be nice, any warm body.

She talked too soon as Sirius sat down in that seat and Christine immediately sat up and looked around the common room with her hands folded on her lap.

It felt very awkward with Sirius and she didn't know if she liked it. She hadn't talked to Sirius about him beating up a kid for her, she hadn't really talked to him for the rest of the day. He was being distant towards her and she didn't like it. James kept calling her stupid and then saying he didn't want to deal with any of the girl bullshit. He could be a pain in her ass sometimes but the boy was charming.

"Does ten work?" Sirius looked down at Christine and she looked into his grey eyes.

"For what?"

"The next step."

"James has been coming with me this last week I'm sure we can manage." She didn't want to go out there with Sirius because she was scared of what she would do if she was alone with Sirius. She didn't want to do anything because she was with Remus and she liked him so very much but the faint feeling of jealousy as Sirius sat beside Dana while she had a smirk on her face pained her. She didn't like to see Sirius taken up by some girl, not at all.

She was about to leave the common room until she felt a hand wrap around her wrist. She closed her eyes for a second remembering to stay cool and remember that if she did anything that means she would hurt Remus and what person in their right mind would want to hurt Remus Lupin.

"I told Prongs that I would go because Minnie did assign me," Sirius said. 

Christine turned back to look at him and he looked into her eyes before dropping her wrist. If fell down to her side and Sirius kept his eyes on his hands that he was playing with on his lap. His black hair fell down and covered his face, she wanted to brush the hair out of his face and look into those grey eyes that she sadly so longed for. She hated herself for thinking about any of that.

Sirius stood up and fixed his blazer before saying, "If you don't want me to go with you that is understandable. I'll fetch James." Sirius nodded towards her and started to walk swiftly towards his dormitory.

"Sirius, wait!" Christine called.

He quickly snapped his head back to look at the brown-haired girl. Her eyes were glistening with regret and she did regret so much.

"Meet me here at ten," Christine said before she walked over to her dormitory. 

Before going up the stairs she turned around and said with a smile, "Tell Potter that I need the invisibility cloak." 

She turned around and made her way up the stairs with a big smile on her face and little did she know that Sirius had the same wide grin on his face. 

***

Sirius sat in the common room tapping his foot on the ground as he waited for Christine to come down the stairs. He wasn't getting impatient he was just nervous. Nervous because he liked Christine a lot, as a friend of course and he just wanted to spend some time with the girl.

She came down the stairs in a black jumper and a pair of jeans. She smiled as she saw Sirius wearing the jacket that she gave him. He had a fitted white shirt on under and a devilish smirk on his face.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

She smiled, rolled her eyes, and said, "Fine."

Sirius found a place where no one would see them and threw the invisibility cloak around both of them before Peter opened the portrait hole for them and him looking back and waving at the two of them. 

They walked silently through the halls as they turned down corridors and found their way outside of the castle before they threw off the cloak and stuffed it into Christine's bag. She slung it around her shoulder as they walked down towards the edge of the lake, by the rock.

She thought it was weird for her to be over by the rock and thinking about it at the same time. The last time she was there she didn't start thinking about the time Remus kissed her the way he so did which surprised her. Or that he said that he loves her. She never thought about it as she walked down to the edge of the pond that held the place where sunlight or humans had touched. 

"Night's like these really are the best, the moon, the cold. I don't know why but I just love it when the night is like this, don't you?" Sirius asked with a smile on his face as they entered the forest.

"I suppose. I didn't really pay attention to my surroundings when I came here with James," Christine responded as she gripped her wand tighter as it lit up on the tip.

"What did you and James talk about?" Sirius was a little bit farther than Christine so he stopped and let her catch up.

"Mostly about quidditch and um Lily." 

She was lying. Well, not completely. She did talk about quidditch and Lily with James but it was mostly about her stressing over Remus and Sirius. James tended to listen to her and say it was okay but she always ended up finding out another way to get anxious which didn't help one bit. She enjoyed watching as James tried to calm her down with a smile still on his face, he really was such a kind person.

"What have you told him about Lily?" Sirius asked.

"Just about the little things she likes."

"Like what?"

"Well, she loves it when the common room is quiet when James pays attention when James behaves, and oh my gosh." Christine gasped and a smile broke across her face.

"What?"

"Lily _totally_ like James." She sounded very giddy but she didn't.

"Why would you say that?"

"Probably because he's being more responsible this year. That's a good answer, yes?"

"I suppose, he _is_ putting his studies ahead of everything else."

"Even quidditch. Is that normal for James?"

"No. James is the type of person to not give a shit about school and just tries to rake up a passing grade."

"Maybe it was his O.W.Ls."

"Maybe. He did great _really_ good grades. There was a whole celebratory dinner."

"Maybe James will get his date with Lily then."

They were silent as they kept climbing through the forest. It seemed like whenever they were in the forest they were both more vulnerable to conversations that would rise with importance and in-depth, juicy details. The kind of things that normally would be shared between young girls who just wanted to spill their secrets to their best friend.

"James started liking her so long ago," Sirius said as he stuck his hands in his pockets as he looked chilly.

"Only three years ago. I'm sure he had a _much_ bigger crush before that or at least someone in the Marauders."

"Did you have a crush on anyone when you were in first year?"

"Actually yes, but I am very ashamed of who it is," Christine said as she stepped over a log.

"You have to tell me now, duckling," Sirius laughed lightly.

She liked it when he called her duckling for some reason. She didn't know why but she just loved how cute the nickname was. She didn't mind Chrisy either but she only really liked Sirius referring her to anything related to her first name.

"Let's just say that he and I are friends now."

"James? Peter? Remus? Wait no sorry not Remus because he's your boyfriend. I give up."

"Gilderoy Lockhart," she mumbled.

"Yeah that sucks, I feel bad for you."

"Now you get to tell me who you had a crush on in first year?" Christine teased.

"I'm ashamed of who it is," Sirius said with a wide grin.

"Spit it out, Black."

His face turned serious and he looked at the ground and said, "You."

Chris laughed and she couldn't stop. First, it was hysterical then she could almost feel herself start to cry but she didn't. She held in the tears as Sirius just admitted to having a crush on her in first year. 

"Are you okay, Chrisy?" Sirius asked.

She looked at him and gathered her expression and looked at the boy. She let a kind smile fall onto her face and she went up to Sirius and kissed him on the cheek. He didn't do anything as he stood there and didn't touch her at all. She pulled away after letting her lips linger on his cheek for a second.

She looked into his eyes and he was closer to her. She could feel her heart race and she swore she could feel Sirius' due to their close proximity.

They were caught in each other's eyes. Sirius instinctively placed a hand on her cheek and started to stroke it with his thumb. He didn't break eye contact and she didn't pull away. 

He looked down at her lips and she looked down at his before snapping her eye back up to his in which he was no looking at her lips while biting his lips at the same time. He made eye contact with her and he cupped his other hand on her cheek and her face was now in his hands. She could feel his warm breath fan across her face and she closed her eyes.

She could feel his lips hover her own and she opened her eyes and backed away very quickly.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but I can't," she said.


	19. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut in this chapter, yeah, you've waited long enough.

The weekend came and the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match was today. Everyone was excited and James was freaking out because he didn't have enough plays, which makes sense because he waited so long to hold tryouts.

Christine was pleased that she finished the next step with Sirius. It was awkward after the incident when they almost kissing but they swore not to tell anyone as Sirius confirmed his relationship with Dana. It was odd as they walked back and quickly returned back to their dorms without any other words exchanged between the two of them.

Christine walked into the Great Hall, dressed in her scarlet Gryffindor robes with her hair put in two braids. She had a smile on her face as she saw Remus light up at her in her new robes.

"Like them?" Christine asked as she spun around.

"They're lovely, darling," Remus said as he moved over for Christine to sit next to him.

Sirius was on her left and Remus was on her right and she kept her eyes off of Sirius. Sirius was doing the same as Dana was dressed in her scarf and had a sign she used every year about the beaters. She told Christine that it was for her which was not true at all and she knew it was Sirius. 

"Pudding," Dana said and everyone snapped their head to her and she watched Sirius under her lashes. 

Christine gagged which caused Sirius to elbow her and look at her. Her eyes were teasing and he loosened up and let a smile grow across his face.

"Shove off, Chrisy," Sirius said with a smirk.

"Leave me alone, Black," she teased.

"Hey, you and your boyfriend do that."

"We do not call each other _pudding,_ no offense, Dana," Christine said with a smile.

"None was taken," Dana said.

"Then what do you call each other?" Sirius asked.

"Well, I call him Remus."

"And I call her Monty," Remus finished, pulling his head away from his book.

"You guys are so fucking weird," Sirius said and he turned back to Dana.

"Pads is not lying, Monty," James said.

"I don't care what Sirius says, he's a dumbass," she said louder earning herself another elbow. "You are not two years old, Sirius, stop elbowing me."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at her and turned back to Dana and ran his hand through his hair as Dana talked to him. She saw his shoulders move in a more slouch and she suddenly felt weird.

She was just flirting with Sirius and he was flirting back. She shook her head and looked at Remus who had finished eating his breakfast and put some food on her plate. She smiled at him and he gave a soft smile back. 

She grabbed her fork and started to put some food in her mouth while Remus grabbed her hands softly and started to outline every crevis of it. It tickled but she let him slowly move his finger over the palm on her hand. She kept eyeing his hand as he kept moving it softly against her hand and it gave her butterflies every time he came over to a sensitive spot.

She ate her food and saw Regulus coming in with some of his friends. He huffed and sat down carelessly. He was wearing his green quidditch robes and running his hands through his black hair. 

She made eye contact with him and he stopped. She didn't break eye contact until Regulus motioned his head somewhere else. She quickly stood up and Remus looked at her in confusion. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll be back, I just have some matters to attend to," Christine said.

Remus grabbed her hand and kissed it, causing butterflies to erupt. She saw Sirius watch them slightly and huff before turning back to Dana. 

"Are you sure you don't need me to come?" he said.

"Yes," she responded quickly, getting nervous. "I have some _womanly_ issues."

Remus's eyes widened and he stood up and pulled her into a hug. He rested his chin on her head and she let the warm boy give her a hug. She wrapped her arms around him. He kissed her forehead because letting her go.

She quickly got away from Remus and walked out of the Great Hall and looked around for Regulus who had stood up from the Slytherin table and walked out into the corridor. She found him behind a staircase after a little bit of a walk and he was standing there. He looked so much like Sirius but they gave off such different vibes as Sirius was more excited and always chipper and Regulus was sullen and tended to be quiet more.

"Hello, Christine," he said. He had an old snitch and was throwing it up and down.

"Regulus," she said in acknowledgment.

"Why did you call me here?" he said as he brushed his dark curls out of his grey eyes. 

"I didn't call you," she said as she leaned against the cold wall and looked out the little window that looked over the black lake. 

"Yes, you did." 

Regulus looked so much like Sirius that she almost expected a grin to break across the boy's face yet it stayed perfectly still and barely even moved. His emotions were so concealed that she couldn't even see what lay behind his eyes. There was zero emotion, brokenness. She hadn't seen that with Sirius but she felt like that half the time.

"What's wrong, Christine?" Regulus asked as he looked at the girl warily.

"Nothing."

"Then why did you want me here?"

"Will you shut the fuck up, Regulus? Please. I'm trying to think."

He chuckled a little bit and Christine looked over at him in confusion.

"There's the girl I met in Diagon Alley." He pocketed the snitch and crossed his arms across his chest.

"What do you mean?" She looked at him with an eyebrow raised and he smirked a little bit. It wasn't like Sirius' smirk as it had less emotion and was more there for convenience.

"You told me in Diagon Alley about how dumb Sirius was, am I wrong?"

"I'm sorry, Regulus, are you disappointed?"

"Never. You just seemed so nervous in the Great Hall as Lupin drew circles on your hand."

"He's my boyfriend dumbass, he's allowed to draw circles on my hand."

"You looked at my brother though." He chuckled again.

"I didn't mean to," she stuttered.

"Sure," he said sarcastically.

Christine stood there and looked around at the Slytherin in green robes. She realized that Sirius would look good in green because Regulus sure as hell did. She pictured Sirius on Regulus' head and she rolled her eyes at her own stupidity.

Regulus laughed a little bit and Christine snapped her head up to look at the book. He was laughing hysterically and he shook his head at Christine as he watched her judge him completely. He watched her look even more pissed and she huffed and left the staircase.

A hand wrapped around her wrist and she was quickly pinned to the wall with Regulus staring down at her. There was again no emotion filling his eyes, the darkness ran through him and she could tell, he didn't look happy at all.

"Get off me, Regulus," she breathed.

He backed away with a kind look in his eyes. She saw as he looked at the ground and shook his head quickly before leaving her there. She felt horrible because she knew he felt horrible. No matter how bad the rumors about Regulus were, he didn't deserve it.

***

The match was over and Gryffindor won 190-30. People were cheering as the new seeker caught the snitch and Holly only let in three goals. Let's just say that Gryffindor did amazing for a few days of practice.

They returned to the common room and it was crazy as people were cheering when Christine came in. She had successfully knocked the Slytherin keeper off their broom causing Gryffindor to score another ten points. Sirius did a lot as he kept people away from the goalposts to give Holly a break but sometimes got carried away and started to stray from the posts. Overall they all had a good game.

Music was blasting in the room and people were dancing with drinks in their hands -no doubt spiked by some seventh years- and they were having a jolly time. People were laughing, making out, and celebrating the first win of the season, it was refreshing.

Sirius came over with a cup and handed it to her and she took it with a smile on her face. Sirius sat down on the chair next to her and started to drink his drink as the party went on and on. 

"Rowdy fucking Gryffindor's," Sirius said in a little bit of a slur. She could tell that he had been drinking and probably one of the first ones to do so.

She laughed and took a sip of the fire whiskey. Her throat burned but she liked the burn.

"Don't you think you're also a little rowdy?" Christine said.

"Never."

"Never?"

"Don't question the fucking master of being non-rowdy." He laughed and took another sip of his drink.

"You get rowdy when you're drunk," she stated.

"I do not. I am the most chill guy when I'm drunk."

"You're rowdy right now and drunk as fuck," Christine said.

"Merlin, am I?"

"Hell yeah."

Christine spent the next hour drinking and dancing. She ended up with Remus after she could feel that she was heavily intoxicated and knew that the next morning she would regret all of it. She didn't feel sick yet but she laid her head on Remus' shoulder as he squeezed her tight to her body.

"Do you want to go up to bed?" Remus asked kindly.

"Yeah I think so," Christine said. She could feel herself getting more tired even though everything seemed slightly blurry to her.

Remus helped her up and started to bring her towards the girl's staircase when it turned into a slide and some dude fell down it. Remus turned towards the boy's staircase and held into Christine's waist as he took her up to his own dormitory.

"Do you want to change?" Remus asked. "I could get Lily to get you some clothes." Remus helped Christine onto the bed and she plopped down.

Christine felt herself take her shirt off and Remus turned around quickly. He shielded himself and he knew that he should be careful because she was drunk and not thinking straight.

"I'm going to get Lily," he said as he walked to the door. 

"Remus," Christine breathed causing Remus to turn around and his breath hitched as Christine was laying there in her undergarments. She looked so beautiful to him. Her hair was out of the ponytail and she was propped up on her elbows. She looked tired but beautiful. The way the moonlight slipped into the room and went directly on her face made Remus get goosebumps.

"Yes, Chris?" Remus asked. He was at a loss for words.

"Come lay with me," she said seductively.

Remus looked at the door, locked it and pulled out his wand, and made sure no one could hear inside the room just in case.

He walked towards the girl and he took off his sweater and placed it on the floor before crawling onto the bed next to her.

He wrapped his arms around her and she had other plans. She couldn't think straight and she decided that she was going to move out of his arms. She quickly switched and sat on him, straddling his hips between her legs. 

She could feel him getting harder on her throbbing pussy. 

She pulled his shirt over his head and put it on the floor. She looked at him and slowly started to trace his scars with kisses. He flinched when she hit a new one but when she did she would quickly move to the next, planting kisses on every visible scar. He never told her why he had the scars and she knew that he'd tell her when he wanted to and for now he just wanted to be a teenager and have some fun. 

She came up to his face and before kissing his lips kissed the scar that ran down his face slowly. She paced herself, letting the taste of his skin burn on her lips. The leftovers of fire whiskey were burning in her throat and she enjoyed the feeling.

She made her way to his lips and kissed him tenderly. He kissed her back and didn't cringe away at the fire whiskey on her breath. 

Their lips moved in a cool symphony and Remus' hands trailed up Christine's back and unclasped her bra and put it somewhere on the floor. 

He pulled away to admire her breasts and a smile spread across Remus' face before he went back to kissing her. 

She was flipped onto her back and Remus slowly kissed her neck before he trailed down to her left breast where his teeth playfully tugged at the nipple. That's where the wolf tendencies definitely came in.

He moved his kisses to her sternum and she pulled his head back up to attach their lips again. 

Remus' tongue swiped her bottom lip before entering her mouth completely. Their tongues danced together as one. 

Remus moaned against her lips which sent butterflies to her stomach. She loved to make him moan, well she loved to make any boy moan.

He tugged at her underwear and she lifted her lips and let him pulled her panties off and put them on the floor somewhere. Christine tugged at his belt and Remus got on his knees and pulled it off before quickly taking his pants off but not his boxers. 

He stood there looking at his entirely nude girlfriend in adoration. He looked scared.

"What is it?" Christine asked as controlled as she could, she wanted his warm body back.

"D-do you really want to?" he asked as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Of course I do, Remus, I love you," she said carelessly.

Remus snapped his eyes to hers and quickly pulled off the boxers. 

He climbed on top of her and spread her legs farther as a smile appeared on his face.

"You're so wet," he laughed.

Christine grabbed his head and pulled him down to her eyes to where she started to kiss him and leaned backward, letting Remus fall on top of her.

His body ground against hers and the throbbing became uncontrollable. He saw the look in her eyes and said, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she whispered back.

And then he drove right into her. She moaned as she felt him enter his body. He was careful and not rough as he slowly pushed farther in, it was sweet. Christine wrapped her legs around his waist and he slowly drove in a little farther. 

His head fell by her neck and she gripped his back as he pressed hard into her. She felt so many emotions. It felt so wrong and so right. What was wrong with her? Even entirely drunk and having sex with Remus she was still seeing his face. His grey eyes and how they lit up when Christine said something funny. How he bushed his dark curls from his eyes with a hand when he was stressed. 

Why was everything about him? Why did she see him everywhere?

It was the worst time to be thinking of Sirius.

***

The morning came and the curtains were drawn around the bed and Christine laid there with her head on Remus' chest and his arm around her, holding her tightly. His breathing was even and she realized she was naked. Her eyes widened.

She clutched the sheets and pulled him over her exposed chest and wanted to get out of bed. She stirred a little bit until Remus opened his green eyes and gave Christine a smirk.

Her breathing quickened and she had a pounding headache.

"Good morning, love," he said as he laid a kiss on Christine's forehead. "Did you enjoy your night?"

What had she done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I wrote before taking a break but I'll bring it back with longer chapters.


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